Day 18

[loveandwillpower]

[ Wheeeere's Grim Eyes? Possibly the art room, possibly in her own personal room, wherever she is, Minako's tracking her down and shutting the door behind her. ]

Hey, Grim! Got a minute?

Comments

[liveronhersleeve]

[Grim's in her own room - which, honestly, is a complete mess considering that it's been lived in for only a few weeks by someone with very little in the way of personal effects - and she startles a little as Minako comes in, but she collects herself quickly when she sees who it is.]

Yeah, of course. What do you need?

[loveandwillpower]

[ Just gonna sit down at the desk. Or on it sidesaddle if the chair's cluttered or something. And pause, half a second of thought before getting right down to it. ]

You're a warrior, right? So your "stick" has to be something pretty bad.

[liveronhersleeve]

[The desk is covered in an uneven layer of rough drawings, but the chair's open. Grim Eyes herself is sitting crosslegged on the bed.

She sighs.]

Bad enough I don't want to believe the garbage bears can do it.

[loveandwillpower]

[ Minako's sitting on it backwards, because she's been in a rebellious kind of mood and this is how rebellious teens sit. ]

Right?

They totally could do mine, if they can pop in and out and kidnap or kill people whenever.

[liveronhersleeve]

Mine they would have to change the course of something with - damn, mythological implications I guess. But mythological stuff that only happened really recently.

[loveandwillpower]

My real job is guarding the reincarnated warrior princess from the moon, you don't have to be shy talking about weird magic stuff.

[liveronhersleeve]

[Grim Eyes blinks at that, and then laughs.] Sure. Fair enough.

There was a god - a long time ago, it - he - was a god of my people, but he betrayed the goddess She-Is-Fiercer and their child died, so she ate his name and cast him out. And that's as much as is in the stories our shamans tell. Or at least the stories that our shamans tell people who aren't other shamans? I'm not sure.

But it turns out that when it left, it took the Sweet-Grass Voice, the demon who told it to do it. Took it with it, and tried to make it die with it. And a few months ago... it finally managed to arrange circumstances so that both of them would die. Completely, and for good.

The idiot garbage bears claim they can change things so that Sweet-Grass Voice would be freed rather than destroyed.

[loveandwillpower]

That's a serious crisis!

[ She's saying this as a pro, Galaxia's probably worse but there's no need to have a whole tit-measuring contest about it. ]

And... uh. They probably can. There's a gate through time and all, but the guardianship of that is. It could be better?

[liveronhersleeve]

I said I don't want to believe it. Not that I don't believe it.

[loveandwillpower]

Yeah, and mine's something that can't happen either.

So.

Should we fight to the death?

[ She's got her head on her folded arms and clearly doesn't mean throw down right this minute, and doesn't sound that happy about it. Rip that band-aid right off. ]

[liveronhersleeve]

[Grim Eyes is a little surprised to find that she isn't surprised at all.]

One question.

If I killed you, would... would your honor require that you be avenged? Setting aside your own feelings about it. Would your family expect it.

Because mine wouldn't, if you killed me.

[loveandwillpower]

Nope!

My team would be mad, yeah, but I wouldn't call it a honor thing one bit.

If another human did it, that'd be more of a problem. Like - going down to some kind of alien or monster's always a danger, but it wouldn't be out-and-out murder like it would if Illya got me with a knife?

[liveronhersleeve]

Right. And a hunter can get killed in all kinds of ways that are tragic but not disgraceful. It's only murder if another hyena killed me.

[Aren't nonoverlapping definitions of personhood convenient.

She sighs, shoving her hands through her hair, sitting for a long moment with her hands around the bases of her ears, her forearms folded over her face. She doesn't have an excuse. It's not honor that makes her balk from playing into the raccoons' plans, it's pride.]

...alright. Tonight.

[loveandwillpower]

[ Yep. Another reason here is that if Minako has to kill someone - it's better that it's someone who looks like something she's used to fighting. Less like murder. Totally not murder at all, it's an old fashioned duel, pistols at dawn. ]

At the aquarium? That way, if you get hurt during the fight, you can tell everyone you found an even bigger shark.

[ Minako is super good at excuses and willing to share. That makes it more of a fight between equals, somehow. ]

[liveronhersleeve]

[That startles a laugh out of her.] I'll keep that in mind. It's as good a spot as any.

[loveandwillpower]

But don't make a necklace out of my teeth or anything that would be weird.

[liveronhersleeve]

No trophies, no eating anything. I promise.

[It seems like it bears saying. Especially in light of the first conversation they'd had.]