The Ninth Trial

[advisories]

Who: everyone
When: Day 18, starting just after dawn
Where: The Hermit's Tent, and all around

[This morning as the sun begins to pour through the train's windows, there's the tremor that signals a Trial.]

Come hither, Heroes. Prove thy worth. Or something like that!

[It's the same older man's voice from the sixth trial, and outside is the same fortune teller's stall. Today the front flap is lifted to show a normal interior -- there's a wooden table, carved with geometric patterns and painted in bright colours, lit by teal-coloured carved candles.

At the table sits a man of indeterminate age, somewhere between 30 and 60. He's wearing what appear to be monk's robes, teal with patterned trimming. In front of him is a crystal ball and a stack of bingo cards, along with a stand-up sign bearing the rules of this Trial.

Across the top in large font, it says:

Icebreaker Bingo

Good luck and have fun!]

Comments

[desirestruth]

I always saw it as you'd bed someone but wouldn't commit to a longer-term arrangement, myself?

[She is considering this, though.]

[bad_crowmance]

But if that's the case, why would anyone pick people separately for them instead of just going "hey, actually I'd wed AND bed Lucien and kill the other two options."

[desirestruth]

Because you can have people you'd only want to fuck for a fling, instead of repeatedly?

[bad_crowmance]

Then why pick the wedding option at all?

[desirestruth]

One, because a marriage alliance can tie two previously warring nations together, or at the very least strengthen the bond between nations at peace. Second, a marriage is a long-term partnership in legal, financial and personal senses. I know plenty people I'd sleep with but wouldn't trust as a partner in any sense of the word.

[She doesn't understand this line of questioning.]

Third, I am a Queen and have to produce heirs, I don't really have a choice in that, so I'm gonna pick to marry someone who'd at least help raise them.

[bad_crowmance]

Man, I'm glad I'm not royalty! That sounds like too much of a hassle.

[desirestruth]

You'd be surprised how much of being royalty is.

[A beat.] But then again, we do get the best houses.

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah okay, I'll give you that one.

[desirestruth]

It is what it is.

[bad_crowmance]

Yes, Your Highness.

[ He's teasing her. ]

[desirestruth]

Finally, some respect.

[She is joking back. But, she pauses, and considers the cards.]

Say, little brother...

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah, N?

[desirestruth]

Last one to the lounge pays for drinks.

[She gives it a second to sink in, to be fair...

and then TAKES OFF RUNNING.]

[bad_crowmance]

[ It's only a split-second before he's taking off after her. He's athletic, has long legs, and is super competitive so he's trying his best to win. ]

[desirestruth]

[She's athletic, but she's a good deal shorter than him, and also running in heels. She's also not changing forms, in the interest of fairness.

Still, she's going to make him work to win.]

[bad_crowmance]

[ When it comes to competition, he's extremely willing to throw himself into working for a victory-- it makes it all the sweeter if it comes. He's pretty gracious about winning or losing, but that doesn't mean he won't try his best to win. ]

[desirestruth]

[He will beat her, in the end--Naeva's still unused to being without her other advantages, and in the end doesn't care enough about winning or losing to push herself hard enough to really beat him. She is laughing some, when she reaches the lounge after him, though.]

Oh, fast!

[bad_crowmance]

Heh! I try. Though I'm not stupid enough to think I'd have won if you'd shifted into your jackal form.

[desirestruth]

But that would have been cheating.

[But, she'll pull her chain out for drinks!] Whiskey, I assume?

[bad_crowmance]

Says the woman who scent-marks cards. Yeah, whiskey's right.

[desirestruth]

To the man who counts them. Cards are different, Crow.

[But she'll buy him a glass of whiskey, and herself some ...well, some sugary-ass monstrosity that looks pretty.]

[bad_crowmance]

Cheat one way and it just shows you'd be willing to cheat in others.

[ He'll take the whiskey, though. ]

[desirestruth]

Not particularly? The way I was taught, cheating cleverly is really just part of playing cards.

[bad_crowmance]

Now I'm curious who taught you.

[desirestruth]

My brother. He could leave the forest...I think he picked it up from soldiers in the Empire?