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

[voreaciously]

Ah, yes!

[She seems faintly excited that he guessed it.]

That is correct!

[The water fades away.]

[bad_crowmance]

I'd never thought about the sound a moth makes... I think that's what threw me off. So you like bugs, huh?

[voreaciously]

I like anything worth attention. Moths certainly are. I nearly picked spiders or a blue-ringed octopus--so lovely, so lethal, but moths are lovely things.

[Well, one moth in particular, but still.]

[bad_crowmance]

Moths are pretty cool, I can't blame you there.

[voreaciously]

Yes, they have very clever and interesting defense mechanisms. They are also very sweet and sometimes feisty. But ahh, I do not wish to grow carried away. [he didn't ask for moth facts and data.]

Your turn.

[bad_crowmance]

[ He balls his hand into a fist and then holds it up to his face as though it were a paw. ]

Nyaaa~

[voreaciously]

[Her face flushes pink for a moment.]

As expected.

[She clears her throat delicately.]

[bad_crowmance]

Well, it was either that or a bird. I like both pretty equally.

[voreaciously]

That does not surprise me, but I am glad to hear it. I imagine it would be a special sort of terrible to be named for a bird and have no taste for it.

[bad_crowmance]

Haha, right? Fortunately, I like my name just fine.

[voreaciously]

That is good. Names are tremendously important. There is a saying "Names and natures do often agree." It seems to apply in your case.

[bad_crowmance]

Oh, you think so?

[voreaciously]

Crows are crafty and famously intelligent creatures.

[if only 80H knew JUST HOW MUCH THIS WAS TRUE.]

[bad_crowmance]

Well, I'll accept that just fine.

[ He does love a good compliment. ]

[voreaciously]

Well, that is another square.

[help me rin i do not have the thing open.]

Did you wish to do a trust fall?

[people have been weird about this one. she doesn't get it.]

[bad_crowmance]

[ I'm a helper. ]

[ That being said, Crow grimaces at that. ]

Oh right, I forgot about that square.

[ He's one of the weird ones, sorry 80H. ]

[voreaciously]

[Yeah, he forgot it as much as she "forgot" to say what she likes about herself.

But, she is not going to point it out, at least like that. Something she does when she starts to get to know someone a little, especially if they are...haaaand gestures, hm, have certain idiosyncrasies (trust, pride issues, whatever) is she processes things very quickly and skips obvious, logical steps.

Crow wouldn't forget about this. He is avoiding it. Crow has trust issues. Crow doesn't trust her.

She can work with all this, she skips ahead, cuts to the quick.]

You do not need to trust in me, per se, if that helps. Instead, trust that I have nothing to gain by letting you fall or harming you. Trust that I want to win very much and so I would not do this by halves.

[She has her own issues with trusting people, but she can trust that people will be themselves, good, bad, everything in between.

But she knows she is probably approaching something personal and so she keeps her tone impersonal. Casual. This is not a big deal and she will not make it so.]

[bad_crowmance]

[ She's right, of course, he didn't really forget.

80H probably wouldn't believe it if anyone told her-- not even if he were somehow capable of admitting it himself-- but she's actually the closest he's come to trusting anyone in the entire train. Maybe it's because their banter has formed a bond, but he's as comfortable around her as he can get right now. Which isn't saying much, really. There are pieces of himself he's holding back, that he can't help but hold back-- the instinct to keep an emotional wall is overwhelming.

He thinks maybe she'd get that a little. But he can't actually talk about it because that means admitting it's there. And he can't do that. ]

Haha, of course. You're not the type to drop someone for no reason.

[ Rather, he doesn't think it would be in her best interest to. That said, he's grinning and the words come out breezily. If she didn't know him, it might even seem like he's at ease with the whole thing. ]

[voreaciously]

[Honestly, if there is one thing she understands, it is a need to hide behind pretense.

And yet.

Something tastes a bit bitter in her mouth, this time. She does not understand it and considers the facts of the situation carefully in a bid to understand (but does she want to?). She has done this her entire life and she, reasonably, has no right to lay bare what he does not choose to show. Who is she, really? It would be tactless and inconsiderate. Yes, this sounds objectively reasonable.

And yet something is bothering her, a pebble incessantly rolling around in her shoe.

Ah, of course...that would be irksome to anyone, but she cannot push that, not now.

She tilts her head slightly in agreement.]

I am not.

[Her easy, polite manner belie the delicacy with which she handles the situation.

Katsuki has given her ample practise.

She could, instead and perhaps to great disaster, point out a number of ways that he has demonstrated trust for her, but if she does he may re-evaluate matters and find them not to his liking after all. Best not to risk it.]

Though some of your jokes would warrant it.

[bad_crowmance]

[ She could point out the ways he has demonstrated trust for her so far but she won't-- because that act in and of itself would break that fragile trust. She's not wrong to think he'd re-evaluate things if she did, that he'd pull back. Unless of course she found a way to keep him there, to anchor him, but the hows and whys to do that are likely not obvious.

Crow laughs easily at her snarky comment, shaking his head. ]

Hey now, it's not my fault of some people can't appreciate my finely tuned sense of humour.

[voreaciously]

[80H is very awkward with people, but here is where her expertise lies. The unsaid, the subtlety, maintaining delicate balances. She has had much in the way of practise and she is simply a more quiet and introspective person than not. And she knows, of course, that people who have things to hide and are good at doing so simply cannot afford not to be careful about it; she would wager (and be fairly confident in winning) that Crow knows that she knows that she should not and will not speak of things better left unsaid.

Basically, She Gets It.]

A generous use of the term if I've ever heard one.

[She does not tut, but she does not have to. It is in the tone of her words.]

[bad_crowmance]

[ He scoffs at that. ]

I see you're one of those people.

[voreaciously]

A person with taste? Yes, how kind of you to notice.

[she does like his jokes often but she has to pretend she doesn't, right now.

it's not hard to do since she seems incapable of like. laughing. or smiling.]

[bad_crowmance]

Ouch, that's harsh!

[ He says that with amusement, though, so he's clearly not too hurt. ]

[voreaciously]

I wear black leather and velvet for a reason.