"I didn't mean to be in town and at all, I'm very lost and I'm trying to get out of here to meet with Odin the son of Bor the son of Buri in Asgard." He wasn't totally confident the last set of names was recognized, so he's trying something else. "I want to at least get somewhere my phone has service, you know?"

"Wow, I have no idea where Asgard is so I don't know if it's out of my way or not. Anywhere near Grandview?"

"Okay, uh. It’s at the far end of the rainbow, across the Körmt and Örmt and both Kerlaug rivers, where Baldr lived - that's the guy whose death people must have heard of here because only one person in the whole world didn’t mourn for him. Do you know what I’m talking about at all?"

"Wow, only one person didn't mourn this guy? I'd say it must be me but I think it's probably more likely I'm having some kind of memory lapse, especially since the rainbow thing is also pretty confusing. I wish you luck with hitchhiking, I can't pick you up because I'm going to go check myself into the emergency room and see if I have some kind of brain situation." Off they drive.

What the fuck? Thor spends a little too long totally flabbergasted to suggest that maybe this person is just younger than that before they drive off.

So. Yeah. Not a convenient friendly LARP. Probably either a ridiculously huge human zoo or an illusion designed to fuck with Thor in particular. Or - well, he hasn't shown any signs of catching the family madness yet and really most of his brothers haven't either, but. He tries to text his dad a pre-agreed code for "help, I'm not sure I'm sane" just in case it somehow goes through. He has plans for the possibility of losing his mind but they all involve being able to contact at least one person he trusts, so, this sucks.

It wouldn't be unprecedented for someone to trap him in an immersive hallucination designed to fuck with him in particular for no good reason, though. Only there weren't really useful lessons to be learned from that other than "leave Loki of the Wilds the fuck alone until you can kill him" and Thor has been doing that.

The other Loki would be pretty useful here. The other Loki would be a scarred broken man and an enemy besides. Thjalfi would be useful here. Thjalfi is presumably wondering why Thor didn't meet him at Peet's after all and dealing with the mirror creature alone. Or maybe also kidnapped through the mirror. Or maybe dead.

Thor stands near the highway and screams at the heavens for a while. It doesn't help.

Okay. Where would an illusionmaster who was fucking with him require him to "visit" before they could talk "face to face"? Any extremely badass towers around here?

Columbus, Ohio is not a very towering city, just a city with some tall stuff in it, though it does have one tall building that is slightly niftier looking than the others.

Thor heads for the slightly niftier building.

The LeVeque tower is, upon closer inspection, a mixed-use Art Deco skyscraper.

Okay. Thor is going to climb that because it feels like the most badass place to be is on the roof and if he tries to get there by going through the building he might have to interact with someone trying to bar his way on liability grounds and then he might get mad enough to do something regrettable, so probably it's for the best if he just climbs the outside.

Nobody can stop him, though he does promptly attract rubberneckers saying things like "That man is climbing the tower!" and "That looks really dangerous!" and "I hope this is a publicity stunt, because I want a better angle on this courtesy of the Daring Athletics channel!"

That last comment slightly improves Thor's mood.

When he's as high up as he can get, he screams "Show yourself! Who brought me here? What is this place?"

There is literally no response whatever to this because nobody can hear him all the way up there.

Thor has been worse places than this. He catches his breath and tries praying one more time before he gets down. Maybe whoever did this is at the Denny's?

If he's quick about it he can get out of there before they send in a rescue helicopter!

...No, you know what? A helicopter is worth staying for. That seems like a way the wizard behind the curtain might choose to appear.

They're gonna drop him a ladder and a rope with a carabiner on it in case he's wearing anything that can clip onto it.

He can climb a ladder.

Then he'll be in a helicopter! They want him strapped in but have to communicate this by gesture because it's loud.

He considers this. Then he shakes his head. He can hold onto something.

They will not stop communicating that they think he should be in one of the strappy chair things.

Someone he liked agreed to be restrained before, you know.

The air is a little less interested in conducting sound right into the vicinity of their heads. The experience of being in the helicopter gets a little quieter, without interfering with the way the air outside is holding them up. Thor is not the world's best illusionist, but he did spend centuries learning from his father and his uncle and occasionally Frigg.

"What do you want with me?"

"We're going to take you down to the helipad at the hospital!"

"Because that's where I can meet the person who runs this place, or because you think I need some kind of help?"

"Because that's where this helicopter is supposed to go. You don't have to check into the hospital unless you are injured. Will you PLEASE buckle your seatbelt."

"No, I won't." There aren't a lot of fates worse than what happened to his idiot cousin who agreed to be bound. "I'm not likely to get hurt, don't worry about me."