The Thirteenth Trial

[catcophonous]

Who: trialgoers
When: Day 27 all day
Where: The Cat's Zone

[Once again the Trial time has come. Just like the Eleventh, it's the Cat's bar that's appeared in the clearing, and just like then, he's not here for formalities.]

Can you believe you've been dumped on me again already? Lame, I know. But come on in and let's get going.

[But he's not the only voice! The booming, cheerful tone of the Hermit can be heard as well.]

Right, right, come along! This one should be fun for you and us.

[Once you enter the bar, you'll find... it's just a bar. In fact, you are free to come and go from it. The inside, though, has been dolled up -- there are swaths of colourful fabric above the windows, jingly dangly crystal decorations hanging down over tables, and patterned tablecloths. It's the kind of cheesy fortuneteller decor you've seen in the Hermit's tent before!

Otherwise, though, there's nothing strange. There are plenty of tables and an open dancefloor. The cabinets behind the bar are sturdily locked, but there are pitchers of non-alcoholic punch on every table, and on the bar is a jar of paper slips and a laminated instructions sheet.

The name of this game is: Fortune and Lies.]

RULES ☆ TURN-IN ☆ WINNERS & ENDGAME

Comments

[voreaciously]

Pain is pain. If I cannot handle any and all of it, then there is no point.

[desirestruth]

Point to what? Avoiding bonds until we all die?

[voreaciously]

One person avoiding bonding is not going to doom the universe.

[desirestruth]

...There are, by my guess, less than twenty people on this train. A team has completely vanished. We are losing.

Pretend it has nothing to do with you all you want, but we both know that it is false.

[She pauses for a long moment. Doesn't inhale, because she doesn't need to, but does raise a hand to cover her mouth. Her fangs are elongating. No, this isn't time for it.]

Well, it no longer matters to me. [A lie, but it's better than calling 80H a coward during a game.]

[voreaciously]

You are a poor liar, as established. But I am not doing nothing. I participate in every trial that I am able, which, incidentally, has been every trial since this voyage's inception.

[desirestruth]

[Buuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzz. Well, whatever.]

And it is clearly not enough. [She turns so she can go redraw.]

Justify it to yourself however you like. But I refuse to let you or anyone else's reticence get the people I love killed.

[voreaciously]

Call it what you think it is: an excuse. Which it is not. We perform bonds and gain sparks. I have been doing such.

[She rolls her shoulders in an elegant shrug.]

You are free to do as you please. It is not as though I am deliberately setting out to destroy the universe.

[desirestruth]

No, you are simply too afraid to do anything but the most superficial reading of our task.

Don't try to tell me you are not. Hide from me, run from it, whatever you like, but do not lie to me about your fear.

[voreaciously]

I am not lying, but simply call me a coward and have done.

[totally lying tho]

It should not matter if the results are the same. My feelings are quite irrelevant.

[desirestruth]

You are a coward. A coward, and arrogant enough to assume no one would understand, or care. Arrogant enough to think your suffering is immutable and untouchable. Arrogant enough to think I don't know what I felt that day, that I cannot smell it on you.

This train is powered by feelings. You cannot afford to be irrelevant any longer.

[This is maybe the weirdest way to tell someone to love themselves in recorded history.]

1/2

[voreaciously]

[Everyone keeps calling her arrogant, lately.]

Well. This is not a yellow fortune, that is for certain. And I do not smell of fear. I am not a mammal. Orange?

2/2

[voreaciously]

But I do not want anyone. I do not need anyone. A grievous error was made in my being here, more than you could understand, but I live in this universe, unless I do not any longer, so I do my part.

[desirestruth]

It doesn't matter if you're a mammal or not, you smell like prey!

[She's finally snapped, her voice rising, her hand drops, her fangs long and elongated. Her eyes are glowing brightly, pupils dissolved in the light.

oh.]

Stop acting like you are the only monster on this train!

[voreaciously]

Hoh? Is that it? Did you wish to fight, then? I can assure you, I am not a monster, nor do I act like one.

[desirestruth]

Fi--are you insane?

[WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?]

Why would I fight you? I despise your nihilism and self-loathing, your selfishness and your cowardice, fighting you will not change any single piece of that. What sort of absolute idiot do you take me for?

[voreaciously]

I do not loathe myself. [She cannot help but sigh, like she has had this argument so man times.]

I am not a nihilist, either.

[She shrugs.]

You called me prey. I thought you meant to fight or eat me, and the last person who was as angry as you were wished to duel me. It did not seem a farfetched conclusion to come to.

[desirestruth]

My instinct is to eat everyone and everything with blood in their veins! I do not want to do so, fighting you would be counterproductive to that!

[voreaciously]

I see. Well, I am not prey, unfortunately. Unless you wish to change your mind and indulge yourself.

[desirestruth]

What?

[WHAT IS HAPPENING.]

[voreaciously]

If you require blood. You may have it. From me. Or what have you, I do not mind it.

[desirestruth]

Why--why would you just offer that? You don't even like me.

[She is honestly so bewildered it's cut through how mad she was. She feels like she missed part of this conversation somehow. What's going on.]

[voreaciously]

I can be useful in at least this way.

[desirestruth]

[Just. Putting her face in her hands.]

Useful.

[THERE IS JUST. SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE.]

[voreaciously]

Yes.

[desirestruth]

Let me see if I have this right. You have been avoiding me, and in fact have...stated no desire to form any connection to anyone here. However, despite your avoidance and clearly stated desire to not be emotionally involved with me in any way, you're freely offering to let me consume you, without asking any questions, because it'll make you useful?