driftfleet | ✮ ( 001 ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ / ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ )

I knew I should have looked up 'reality shows' a few months back.

[ The man who appears on the screen is currently looking at what seems to be a little notepad before adding the word 'space' next to the words 'reality tv'. Really, he could have done this space setting if it included an inter-galactic war or helping planets in peril.

But in all honesty, Steve Rogers: entertainer has never been his career choice and it's not his forte, either. At least now the whole thing doesn't include singing and girls in scandalously short skirts. ]

My name is Steve Rogers, currently aboard the SS Pathstone. I've done a little bit of reading while aboard the Marsiva. I understand there are those who are trying to help the people on the moon we're visiting, if there is anything you need, I'd do whatever I can do to help.

[ you might catch a glimmer of red and blue and silver just behind him. A wink as the light hits metal ]

The same goes for going home. I imagine people have already looked into ways for us to leave this place. No one should be taken anywhere against their will. I'd like to hear about the information you have managed to collect and I'll do everything I can to make sure everyone will be able to go home safely.

[ you all get a little smile. he's so awkward at these things, can you tell by now. ]

I heard I've missed quite a party.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Loki smiles.]

Not at this time.

Three years, Steve. And a version of you was there for all of it.

I'm sorry.

[ it doesn't matter if it's Loki or anyone else. ]

That's a long time to spend at a place you don't belong at.

[there are things of Luceti he cannot forget, because he forgets nothing. Some very emotionally important things writ indelibly on him. And some of those involved Steve even if he has no intention of ever speaking plainly about it, because this is not the man he knew and in a different lifetime called 'cousin.' This is someone who regards him as an active enemy, who deserves no hold upon him. And yet, 'I'm sorry.'

He must be cautious.

But there is still an odd note of softness in the amusement with which he regards the world and speaks.]

There is no place in which I belong.

I am over a thousand years old, did you know that? Time is a relative thing. The universe might turn upside down in an instant. Years pass in the blink of an eye. And a single day might contain an entire other life.

[It is all true, in its own way, and all an obfuscation in another, a useful fiction that plays to the narrative he wants to control. His favorite sort of lies.]

There's Asgard.

[ the one place steve considers as his and thor's home, after all. the one place loki always included when he presented himself.

so. there's Asgard. ]

Time is relative.

[ that he can agree with him on but ]

But any time spent in a place like the one you described sounds like far too long.

[He wonders if Steve means in the sense of the dungeons, though that doesn't seem the intent. And Asgard does belong to him now; he's won, but it's one of his greatest secrets. He's got the story he's built here, however, and slips it on like a comfortable coat.

Softly:]

Nay. Nor Valhalla.

[Hah. Well.]

'tis true enough. Though it could be and has been worse.

[ for once, he doesn't and that's when he has to catch himself. Loki lies, Thor made that much clear but worse than that, he is a good liar and Steve isn't that proficient in reading him at all. ]

Well, when we leave this place, Asgard is where you'll choose to go, isn't it? so there's that.

Nay.

[Well, actually yes. He'll return in Odin's guise and continue on as he has been. But he has his narrative here, and he is executing it with utter precision. No one can gainsay him.]

It strikes me as a particularly self-destructive intention, to return to a universe and timeline in which I am dead. While I know I am a contrary creature, I haven't been actively suicidal recently.

New York didn't seem to agree with you.

[ just pointing it out, Loki ]

Where, then?

[Oh, but that's cute. He laughs.]

Rather, I think I did not agree with your Midgard.

The possibilities are rather more expansive than you seem to realize. I am... keeping an open mind.

That's entirely debatable.

[ not smiling. nope ]

I didn't even realize we could choose where to go back to.

Mmm. Are you just making conversation, or would you hear an explanation of the theoretical grounding? [It's something he finds interesting, but he's not going to waste his breath. But it would be very useful food for thought to give Steve to chew upon.]

Though ultimately if the only choice I'm given is remaining here or bleeding out on the barren plain of Svartalfheim... [You take his meaning?]

I don't think you really care about small talk.

[ so yes, he does take interest. ]

you would stay here. After defeating the Atroma, of course.

I am in no particular hurry. There is nothing but time here. [He loathes small talk, but it has its uses.] You are aware that more than one universe is represented here, beyond our shared universe and the one in which we stand. Mathematically, the universes are infinitely branching, driven by the mechanics of chaos.

It is most likely that you and I are not of the same one, for example. From very similar universes, but I have had... rather different experiences at this point than I wager the Loki of your universe has had. I suppose yours might even be alive, lucky fellow.

But the point is that there is no such thing as a one way trip with this sort of travel. If they have brought us from our universe of origin to here, we can be sent back. And the piercing of the quantum barrier between these branching realities is likewise two way, or multi-way. Theoretically, anyone here could be sent to any universe to which the Atroma's devices have access. There is no unbreakable physical law against it. There is not even a temporal violation, for when one of us was taken, it meant our universe branched into two versions of itself. And despite what exaggerated self-importance some might have, none of us are integral to the continued functioning of a universe--or if we are, then it is already too late for our place of origin.

But the universe cares not for us in the slightest. It is beautiful in that regard. [And this is perhaps the most honest thing he has said to Steve in this entire conversation. He does love to talk about these matters of magics.]

Do you understand?

[He shrugs.]

Remaining under their thumb is still preferable to death, but yes. I do not plan to remain so perpetually. I do not think that anyone would care to, given the choice.

Some people call it the multiverse.

[ namely, Winn and Steve had adopted the term and he will have to think and rethink of it because it's complicated in some places and in others, it's just impossible. ]

And time? If they can send someone to any universe, does that mean they can send them to any given time?

I'm familiar with the human term.

[Loki sits back, staring off into the distance for a moment, obviously thinking. Then he gestures, see-sawing one hand back and forth. Maybe yes, maybe no.]

Theoretically, yes. But the reality is limited by what forge the Atroma have built and their method of chaining the universes together. When I was involved in working this problem before and we built our own forge, the only avenue available to us was the use of resonances... so we could send anyone to any place and time for which someone was already present.

Off hand, I can think of perhaps five different theoretical avenues by which they accomplish their chains. Most of them are not quite so flexible as that.

[ he really misses the 40s. you know, aside of the war, those were really simpler times. ]

So they have to have a physical forge? Could it be that it's on the Marsiva? it's where everyone seems to find themselves when they come here.

More speculation than I'm willing to make. It could be. It could just as possibly be elsewhere and then those abducted are teleported. That's a rather simple matter.

I'd have to get onto the Marsiva and take a look around to satisfy myself, but they've placed rather specific blocks on my magics.

✮ ( 001 ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ / ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ )

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