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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"It's alright... Back home Vahalla takes on the form of a hotel. There, the dead gather and train for Odin's army for Ragnarok. So the concept of a strange hotel isn't foreign to me. The only difference is the lack of battles to the death and presence of crows."

She sighed softly as she thought of her friends and her betrothed.

"But I miss the people I've left behind."

“That does seem to be a common reaction.” Loki, of course, had had no one to miss. Thor, maybe, eventually, but the man has been at the Inn when he arrived. “I’d say it’s remarkable what becomes normal the longer you do it, but I doubt that’s especially comforting.”

"You mean like bringing the honored dead to Valhalla?"

She looked to him and while she didn't smile outright, her eyes held some amusement. This was the most familiar she had ever been to anyone remotely related to Loki. It was an odd sensation.

"I think I'll try to take comfort in the fact I don't have giants trying to kill me constantly..."

“I didn’t, but I’ll take it.” Loki flashed the girl a quick smile. She was proving to be an astonishingly level-headed young woman, after all - very quick to understand that different universe meant different people. “It’s a problem in your universe? They’re - well, we’re, I suppose - fairly well cowed in mine. Odin was... thorough.”

"Thor and the threat of him and his hammer usually keep an army of them out of Midgard, but traveling to the giant realms means dealing with them in their own territories."

She did not know why she felt a bit of hesitation referring to the giants as 'them' around Loki. Sam told herself to get a grip.

"Sometimes they come through... like the fire giant Surt. He killed a demigod of Frey and I brought him to Valhalla. We've been friends since."

“Surtr is fairly awful,” Loki agreed. “Always going on about how he’ll grow bigger than a mountain and crush Asgard. There hasn’t been a peep from Jotunheim since I killed Laufey some years back. I expect the, ah, negotiations regarding succession are ongoing. Neither was particularly worried about Thor, though. Your universe is very different.”

"I think my universe is closer to the stories you told than your own."

She briefly wondered which one came first, if that was such a thing. Sam looked at Loki.

"You didn't wish to take over as leader?"

“King of Jotunheim? No. I barely know anything about the place, and I rather suspect standard frost giants aren’t respecters of bloodlines.” Loki waved a hand, descriptively. “And while regicide and patricide may be impressive, I remain decidedly unimpressive otherwise, being half-sized, clumsy at best with ice powers, and a mage.” Which was to say: deformed, incompetent, and weak. “If I decide I want to make that particular uphill climb, it’s always there.”

"You're not wrong... most frost giants seem to be more about power than lineage."

Somehow she thought Loki could muster control over most if he needed to. She thought he could at least manipulate things to look as if he were all powerful, even if he truly wasn't.

"So you prefer to remain as you are, in your world?"

She did not know what he was there or what power he had, but she thought to ask it anyway.

“It varies somewhat. I’ve been King of Asgard twice, once seriously and once just to ruin Odin’s precious empire. I’d do either again with a good enough reason, but... I don’t think it’s a goal anymore.” Loki paused, considering, the said, “I want my own place, not one I’ve stolen, I think. Mind you, I do enjoy stealing in general, it just doesn’t really answer on the larger scale.”

She almost felt like smiling wryly, but she held her neutral expression in place.

"It sounds to me like you might be looking at settling down."

"Heavens no." Startlingly, almost yes. He'd found that he was tired of being rootless, even though it had only been a few years. "It's simply exhausting to constantly fight off people trying to un-usurp their position."

"I know that feeling"

Samirah felt like there was never any rest for the problems of the Nine Realms. Now that she was working with Odin directly, she had to deal with even more things.

"From what I hear this place can be something stable, though I'm not sure I'm ready to celebrate that. Being here is also frustrating. At least I am still able to fly."

"Under your own power?" That didn't come from him, unless the other him was very different indeed. Not that he couldn't fly, of course, he simply had to be a bird to do it over any real distance, and most birds were useless. "Or is that part of being a Valkyrie in your world?"

She nodded. Sam suddenly felt the need to show, but she wouldn't dare in such a public setting. While she knew that most mortals didn't see the truth, she didn't know if the rules were the same in some strange world that appeared to only be a theme park.

"I can summon a horse made of mist to carry me around. Soon, I am hoping to also get my piloting license."

She, too, could turn herself into a bird to fly, but she did not want to shape shift.

Loki nodded. "I'm not a bad pilot, come to that, but my brother insists that someone who can 'actually fly' is better, and I'm generally in no position to argue." In chains or distracted, most often. "If I care to fly without a vessel, shapeshifting is required."

"It's different... I much like being in control of something. I might be able to fly quickly as a flying creature, but there's something missing."

She didn't like shape-shifting in general, but she also felt that way about flying animals.

"It's more direct than piloting, perhaps. When piloting, you control an external thing. When it's your own wings that extra layer is gone." Loki considered for a moment, then said, "Out of curiosity and no wish to assume, can you be a flying creature?" Shapeshifting was a believable talent for any child of his to inherit, after all.

She swallowed and then she nodded.

"I can... all children of Loki can. Some can do it better than others... My sibling Alex is pretty talented with it."

"I was told as a child that it was a particularly difficult area of magic." Loki nodded. "It was never difficult for me, always a particular talent." He wondered, briefly and not for the first time, how much of his affinity for shapeshifting came from being shifted by Odin as an infant. He'd never know, though. "If you want to learn or practice, I'm happy to assist. If not, I apply no pressure."

"Maybe at a later time."

Her reply surprised her. She would normally have said no.

"While I admit I need to get stronger be able to... fight my Loki back home, I still have to sort it out in my head that you are not him."

"I understand." Without any reason to behave - and he was collecting a number, in the Inn, outside of the circumstances of the Inn itself - Loki had few illusions about himself. Though.... "For the record, I'm fine with being your father to the exact extent you wish to claim me as such. You may find that claiming me allows you to escape others' adoption attempts. You may not. Regardless, you're an impressive enough young woman that I believe assisting you would be more fun than tripping you up."

It was strange to Sam to have Loki praise her in a such a way without an undertone that made her skin crawl. She wondered if this version was merely better at playing it cool compared to her own who had to deal with the constant pain of acid to his face. She turned her head and surprised herself by considering the offer.

"I'll keep that in mind... thank you."

"Of course. And if it helps your considerations, I am in fact very fond of the Valkyrie from my universe. For her sake alone, few of your problems would come from me." It was, after all, probably very true that a punishment from Valkyrie earned by messing with Samirah would not be one of the ultimately enjoyable ones.

It put her at ease to know the offer seemed to come from some degree of self-preservation. Whether it was true or not, the context that Loki was keeping his existence more pleasant at the inn made more sense to her in her current state.

"I appreciate that."

She liked Valkyrie a lot.

"I should get back to the inn."

It was nearing time to pray and she had no excuse to miss it now.

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st_ratagem - 2019-04-15 14:35 (UTC) - Expand

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