strangetrip | [EP] your game is weak

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[EP] your game is weak

Loki had bolted almost the moment he heard about a door opening to a new world. Yes, he knew it was temporary, that on previous such openings there was no more chance of escape than there was from the Inn. It was a new place, that was enough to disappear in for... as it turned out, roughly two minutes. It wasn't exactly small, but it was certainly limited.

Fortunately, the festival-like atmosphere was entertaining enough to walk through, and the various games were... interesting. About half of them, he thought, were very clumsily rigged to bilk players. It was obvious enough that Loki rather thought people expected the cheating, that it was meant to be part of the experience. Still, the clumsiness was offensive when there were any number of ways to get the same result without being so obvious.

Naturally, he un-rigged a few of those in passing, and on a couple of the un-rigged games he set a few spells to ensure a higher winning percentage for players than they might otherwise have. Subtly, of course.

He paused briefly at a sort of shoot-the-duck game, pondering what if anything to do to it.

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Years of dealing with her father meant that Samirah couldn't help but to try and see the ploy in every statement Loki made. While he may not be directly her father, she knew there had to be many similarities. Of course, she had yet to meet Thor to test out this theory.

"Alright... Loki."

She wondered what Alex would do right now. Sam thought Alex would probably not give him any benefit of the doubt. She pressed her lips and then soldiered on.

"I... come from a different world where the Nine Realms exist. And where I serve Lord Odin as one of his Valkyries."

She watched him to see what sort of reaction that would garner.

Loki tsked. "My condolences. That must be awful." His tone was light, but as usual when Odin was the topic, if one listened hard enough the hate and bitterness was discernible. "Assuming, of course, that he's anything like the Odin I had the misfortune of... dealing with." That was the safest way of defining the relationship, at the moment.

Edited 2019-02-14 19:45 (UTC)

The way Loki spoke about Odin lined up with the way the one she knew did and a rush of familiarity spread through her. Loki seemed to have a knack with words no matter what version you dealt with. A look of quiet rebellion formed on her lips and in her eyes. She might not enjoy sitting through any of Odin's motivational power points, but she thought Odin meant well overall.

"You and Odin are notorious for not getting along. I imagine it's the same in most universes."

"I agree. I'm certain his A-plus parenting, excellent judgement regarding secrets, and tendency to proportional response is multiversal. And in case it's unclear, he possessed none of those things." At least it was past tense for certain, odd though that still seemed.

"Would you say you're any better in any of those categories?"

Sam didn't think Loki had a leg to stand on in that argument, but she told herself quickly after thinking that, that she was using her own version as a basis for judgement.

"In two of the three, yes. I'm fairly certain I learned my sense of proportional response from my alleged father, so I can't claim to be an improvement there." Loki shrugged easily. "But I've completely avoided inflicting my parenting on anyone, which puts me one-up on that front, and my secrets at least keep themselves better than the old man's did."

The shock registered in her eyes only, but she had so many questions at an instance. Did he not birth Fenris? All the births attributed to Loki... were they not present yet or existed differently somehow?

Samirah felt a rush of indignation. How could one version be so adamant to having children and using them as pawns and another be without completely, she thought.

"Your other self does not seem to have the same sort of self control as you then."

Hesitation tensed her lips as she held his gaze.

"Otherwise my life might have been quite different."

Loki's eyebrows shot up just for a second, a moment of genuine surprise quickly masked. So that was why the girl felt so familiar, was it? Some other Loki's child, and attentive enough that the girl clearly had experience enough to judge. "My condolences again, then. I'll admit there are a few stories of me having children in my own universe, but to a one they're stories I told to test the limits of human belief. Eight-legged horses and such."

She thought of Stanley. While it wasn't Sleipnir himself, Stanley was proof that in some worlds Loki's fictional tales were real. There was a conflicting storm inside of Sam as she thought it was unfair to be so cautious and guarded around someone she didn't truly know. However, she knew that if string theory was correct, there should be a thread of sameness within each version.

"I've met a few of them... They might be stories for you, but they're real in mine. Perhaps the ideas bled from each other when our worlds were formed."

It seemed strange some details remained the same otherwise.

"You really have no children whatsoever in your own reality?"

"That makes sense." It did, especially from the perspective of a liar. If everything was true somewhere, nothing was really a lie. Very comforting! "It might be entertaining to compare those differences at some point."

The question felt more significant, so Loki made sure he was believably serious when he answered. "None at all. An advantage of being a shapeshifter is that I'm as sterile as I want to be, which is in general very."

She didn't know why, but Samirah felt upset. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what she felt, but somehow it seemed entirely unfair. She managed to keep most of this strange frustration from her face. She wondered what Alex would say to Loki's words about shape shifting, but she wouldn't know for quite some time.

Sam regarded Loki quietly. She wondered if he was equally as cruel as her father or not. She also wondered if Loki had control over her or not.

"I'm going to be honest and admit I'm not sure how I feel right now."

She didn't see the sense in hiding it as she was sure Loki could sense or see passed most charades.

“Nor am I.” In some cases, but not many, honesty was the best policy. This was one of those cases, for a near-certainty; the girl knew how to deal with some version of him already, and it was clearly not a positive relationship given how obviously she’d had to force herself to face him rather than flee. They had to be trapped at the Inn together, it was best for them both to find some form of even footing. “Walk with me? Purely as an alternative to standing in the thoroughfare to be a spectacle.”

Samirah was a little surprised she didn't feel any tug to listen to him. She wanted to take it as a sign she wasn't affected by this Loki's commands, but she also knew he had posed it like a question. She decided that laying out some of her troubles with him might be the best course of action. She nodded and began to walk beside him casually.

"My father wouldn't have asked me to join him, but made me. He has control over any of his children."

Loki eyed her speculatively, then shrugged while they walked. “I might be able to, but it would take effort, and absent an actual reason it seems like a waste of said effort.” After a beat, he opted to continue in this spirit of openness it seemed like they’d silently agreed to try. “The Inn is a prison. A pleasant one, but a prison, and we’re all in the same boat. I might occasionally try to push someone overboard, usually my brother, but knocking holes in the hull is not going to happen.”

Sam filed away the knowledge that Loki might be able to control her. Right now she decided to focus on his other words. She wondered how truthful he was being. It sounded like he was, but Sam knew Loki had a way with words.

"Not even if you get really bored? Or for revenge? Back home... you seem intent on Ragnarok."

“I’m not sure if I’ve ever really been bored, and I doubt anything here could offend me enough to destroy the place I’m living as revenge.” Loki glanced down at her, then waved a hand dismissively. “In mine, it’s about three weeks after the date I arrived here and will happen for good reason from what I understand. Honestly, I’d have preferred to put the whole thing off a little longer, I wasn’t done ruining Odin’s work yet.”

"Is that a big motivator for you? To ruin things of people who you feel has slighted you?"

Samirah looked at him quietly. Somehow she felt able to speak more freely to this Loki than the one at home.

"I'm betrothed back home, but my father decided to make a deal with an Earth giant to marry be for Thor's Hammer. He even chose to show up to my home and tell the one I want to marry that I was to marry someone else."

“I’m fairly sure I only hate Odin enough to spend years destroying his work, and I’d actually characterize it as helping him reap what he’s sown. I’m the god of mischief, not destruction.” Not that he was against destruction for its own sake, but Odin had earned special attention.

Loki looked at her again, then shook his head. No doubt his other self had reasons, but that seemed like a miscalculation. “Seems needless, at least the latter bit. You’re a Valkyrie, you take oaths and traditions seriously. Involving humans wouldn’t make you more compliant. And of course in my universe Mjolnir’s been useless to everyone but Thor for a decade or so.”

"I don't know his actual motivation yet, but the hammer is what keeps the giants from invading Midgard. If they knew Mjolnir was out of commission, they would attack. According to Loki, he's trying to prevent that, but I think he has different motivations. We were sent to find Skofnung. I keep thinking Loki might be planning to use the sword to get out of his bindings."

"Our universes are very different," Loki observed. Mjolnir, after all, had nothing to do with why Jotunheim or Muspellheim tended to stay quiet. Fear of their imperialist overload, Odin, and his vast military was a much more likely reason. "But I've found that the best lies tend to be partly truth. I wouldn't doubt that you and yours ending up with the hammer in hand is part of the plan, and you're likely correct on the other as well. I'm not overly fond of confinement, though I don't think I've ever really had 'bindings'." Chains, temporarily, on occasion. A muzzle to keep him from speaking. But not 'bindings' permanent and solid enough to require Skofnung of all things.

"I don't think many people are fond of confinement... But you had killed Balder and I suppose it was the lat straw."

She paused and her eyes ventured to Loki. She found herself hesitating to explain more. Sam wasn't sure the reason why.

"Let's just say the gods can be cruel in their punishments..."

"Balder." Loki tilted his head, thinking, and came up with only a few vague impressions. "I can't say I ever cared about him enough to take the trouble, but I'd be interested to hear what your universe's scale for punishment is."

She looked at him once more. Did she feel pity? Samirah did not think that was the feeling she felt, but there was some part of her that found herself reluctant to answer truthfully. However, she would not lie.

"As punishment you were bound to a slab of rock.... with the entrails of your sons Vali and Narvi. Then a snake was placed over you that dripped venom on your face and while your wife, it's said, is there to catch the venom in a cup, it splashes on your face when she needs to empty it."

While he didn’t have sons or a wife, it was still... interesting. “So, the execution and mutilation of two innocents in the matter as well as eternal torture for one murder of a thoroughly forgettable nothing, and you disagreed that Odin lacks a sense of proportional response?” Loki laughed and shook his head. “For a few hundred humans and an attempted sack of Midgard, not to mention a brief usurpation of the throne, I got eternal solitary confinement, without the additional executions of innocent bystanders and without the torture. My universe’s Odin was an unapologetic imperialist warlord,” coverups were not apologies, after all, “but apparently he’s nowhere near as bad as yours.”

Before she responded, Samirah was carefully choosing her words and weighing the consequences.

"There are a lot of decisions I can't say I understand, but for the most part I think most of the time Odin means well."

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