"Heavy handed does not surprise me, given all we know about him." Loki murmured, letting this all turn over in his mind. "It is not unlikely, that of it being a training session and trial run so to speak. But it's also not certain. And we shouldn't assume it is the obvious when there are other possibilities too. We do not know that Vaeros views us as adversaries to be fought and conquered."

Oh, that raised an interesting point. "It brings to mind something one of my co-conspirator's mentioned too. And something I've pondered." Especially since if Loki was right, he saw a parallel between himself and Vaeros and didn't like it.

"He wants us to love him. He could easily make us be his subjects, considering how easily he brings us here and strips our abilities. It would be an artificial love, an imposed one--not 'real' as it were." And if you spend long enough in that kind of illusion, you lose sight of what's real eventually. "But if he has been deeply hurt and wounded before... If he's trying to not be hurt like that again, but also wants to be loved for who he is...this all starts to make sense. He's trying to beguile and woo us, but also not above trying to alter and use illusion to make that all come to be real entirely."

It made sense to Loki, and he wasn't sure he was explaining it well, but it all made SENSE.