The Thirtieth Trial

[hot_mess_express]

Who: Trial players
When: Day 63, morning
Where: Trial zone

[The trial zone doesn't exactly appear to be inthe best shape. It's the ruins of an old building, something once grand, perhaps a castle, with a strange statue of sorts with six spheres leading to a large seventh on a pedestal. It's possible t see a forest beyond the walls, though find a way out to that seems impossible, and plants have overgrown almost everything.]

[On the statue's pedestal is an inscription:
Three tribes that brought a storm,
Winter brought them to task.
Eventually things would become warm,
What in return did springtime ask?]

[Not so far beyond it appears to be stairs leading down into the earth. And to the side of that is a throne.]

[And on the throne is....someone new in Senna colors? Though perhaps the hair is enough of a give away. Though those with a keen eye may yet notice she's still wearing her geode still, with the distinctive cutie mark still on it.]

[She's lounged across the throne, legs kicked over one side, elbow resting on the other, head in hand.]

I'm bored. [And she offers a grin that has a dangerous glint to it.]

How about we play a game?

Comments

[bestbrotherever]

Oh? And what would that be?

[daydreamshimmer]

A personal experiment of my own.

And you've still danced around the subject. I suppose if our wager could be taken as we both tell, it could be taken as neither of us tell the other anything.

[bestbrotherever]

My apologies, I must have missed the question you wished to ask.

[daydreamshimmer]

Oh no, I was talking the original idea of sharing what we offered to share before instead of you making me pull teeth for something that's only so interesting.

[bestbrotherever]

And what do you wish me to share? I find it only fair that I know, as I cannot find out what I want from you with a touch and must ask.

[daydreamshimmer]

....

You were the one to make the proposition in the first place.

But I guess if you really don't want to know anything....

[She shrugs, and scratches out the inscription on the statue with her claws.]

Then there's not much else to talk about.

[bestbrotherever]

[Loki's face twists as he fights between wanting to ask directly or going at things indirectly as is his usual nature.]

I wish to know how you came into this new power.

[Yeah. Asking won out. He'll also have a hand partially extended, though if she tries to take it without asking, she'll get a magic shock. It's a sign that he's willing to exchange knowledge, not that he's giving it to her right away.]

[daydreamshimmer]

Yes, I know.

And I said I'd tell you.

If you told me your thing first. Because a tie means both lose or both win and I'd let you have the win if you went first.

But now you're playing games and I'm quickly losing any interest I had.

[bestbrotherever]

[Another long silence as he wrestles with his options. Finally he fully extends his hand, without any magical protection.]

If you insist.

[daydreamshimmer]

Not even going to try to do it in words then?

[bestbrotherever]

I am capable of acknowledging when words will get me nowhere.

[daydreamshimmer]

Are you sure you just find it too hard to say the words?

Or did you really not even know what you were offering in the deal?

[bestbrotherever]

I believe I offered you a question of your choice. What you chose to ask, that was the risk I would have to take.

[Yeah his memory of the exact deal has slipped his mind thanks to the electric shocks and freezing thank you solar.]

[daydreamshimmer]

....which isn't the same deal.

You offered the same thing you wanted of me.

[bestbrotherever]

You wish to know how I gained my current powers? [No... He thinks back to his initial conversation, back before all the hurting.]

Why I am who I am. Well. Some would say it is merely my true nature asserting itself. And I suppose I cannot say it is entirely untrue. But I would also look to what I was taught and told, about who I was, who we as a people are, and what others are like.

[daydreamshimmer]

Gosh, it's almost like you can't avoid vague answers, can you? That is literally the answer to that question for everyone except...like the brainwashed maybe.

[bestbrotherever]

That is part of who I am. More of my aberrant nature. Perhaps proof that I was never truly one of the gods, but of the monsters.

[daydreamshimmer]

The only difference between a god and a monster is how reverent people are.

[bestbrotherever]

[He gives a bitter laugh and a small mocking bow.]

Words of wisdom I could have used long ago, and that many of my supposed kin should hear.

Have you heard enough of my words and are ready to see the answers from my mind? You are quite right to think that it would be faster; I would not have to tell you all the ways I was taught I was greater than others.

[daydreamshimmer]

Because the bet would be you'd tell me.

I don't need your permission for a touch. The cost was you having to actually put it into words.

[bestbrotherever]

[Loki drops the mocking and goes quiet for a while.]

Why is it so important that you hear it in my words? [He knows why Solar would insist on him saying it. But why does this monster care?]

[daydreamshimmer]

Because when you make a bet of 'I'll make you dinner,' showing up with all the ingredients for the meal and saying 'go ahead and cook' isn't honoring the bet.

And because it's hard for you to give a straight answer so I want to see how many times it takes you to try and explain to actually explain it.

[bestbrotherever]

[...damn. That is closer to the answer he would've expected from normal Solar.]

My first answer was no lie. I am as I was taught. Superior to others, who should view us as gods. And I was one of the royal princes, the greatest of the great. Yet that was never how I was treated fully, where my brother was. Because he chose the warrior path of brute force where I chose magic and deception. I did more to save his life and the lives of his friends than any other, and still they scorned me because I was not like them.

[daydreamshimmer]

[Normal Solar would recognize it's good for him. Demon Solar just wants to make him squirm.]

But that's hardly all, is it?

[bestbrotherever]

[Oh, so that's why Demon Solar cares so much? Too bad squirming time is on hold.]

Is it? Does any more matter? Even if I had been truly Asgardian, it would not have changed how everyone saw me. None save my parents knew of my true nature, yet they all treated me as inferior.