He went silent for a time, then laughed dryly. "Well yes, you and I both know that. But perhaps men who wish only to wield an axe think everything looks like a tree. It all bleeds the same."
He knew that to be true. Hadn't he been an enemy in the midst of Asgard the entire time? And none had been interested in how he thought, only that he should think like them. Loki fell silent again, then said, "Allow me to give you an example of the sort of attitude I mean. One more story."
"Once there was a great house. They were in a feud with a clan of monsters, hideous creatures that were wholly unlike humans. The parents of this house's families used stories of those monsters to frighten their children. There was a great war between this house and the clan. The monsters were devastated utterly by the great house's head. He went back to their homelands and sowed their fields with salt, slaughtered their brood animals and took their greatest treasures as his prizes..."
Loki paused, his hands stilling against Soma's hair for a moment, then continued on, "There was an infant belonging to these monsters that had been exposed to die, because it was a weakling. The leader of the great house found that mewling little thing and decided to take it home for reasons his own. With trickery, he hid that it was a monster and raised it as if it were a real child.
"But everyone knew, that there was something wrong with this supposed child. It was weak and unsuitable, and could not fit in with the great house, though it tried. As you have said before... it thought differently, and could not think like them no matter how hard they tried to force it to change."
Another long pause.
"One day the secret was revealed to the monster. Suddenly it knew, why it had always been so despised, and the members of the great house knew why always the monster's so-called brother had been beloved. They could not understand the monster, and did not wish to do so. Desperate, the little monster tried to prove itself, but the great house recoiled in horror and the monster fled."
He laughed without humor, his voice oddly hoarse. "So you see, Soma. This sort of thinking is perhaps in fashion in your age, but not in the days from which I come."
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He knew that to be true. Hadn't he been an enemy in the midst of Asgard the entire time? And none had been interested in how he thought, only that he should think like them. Loki fell silent again, then said, "Allow me to give you an example of the sort of attitude I mean. One more story."
"Once there was a great house. They were in a feud with a clan of monsters, hideous creatures that were wholly unlike humans. The parents of this house's families used stories of those monsters to frighten their children. There was a great war between this house and the clan. The monsters were devastated utterly by the great house's head. He went back to their homelands and sowed their fields with salt, slaughtered their brood animals and took their greatest treasures as his prizes..."
Loki paused, his hands stilling against Soma's hair for a moment, then continued on, "There was an infant belonging to these monsters that had been exposed to die, because it was a weakling. The leader of the great house found that mewling little thing and decided to take it home for reasons his own. With trickery, he hid that it was a monster and raised it as if it were a real child.
"But everyone knew, that there was something wrong with this supposed child. It was weak and unsuitable, and could not fit in with the great house, though it tried. As you have said before... it thought differently, and could not think like them no matter how hard they tried to force it to change."
Another long pause.
"One day the secret was revealed to the monster. Suddenly it knew, why it had always been so despised, and the members of the great house knew why always the monster's so-called brother had been beloved. They could not understand the monster, and did not wish to do so. Desperate, the little monster tried to prove itself, but the great house recoiled in horror and the monster fled."
He laughed without humor, his voice oddly hoarse. "So you see, Soma. This sort of thinking is perhaps in fashion in your age, but not in the days from which I come."