[Excuse me. They attack me. ...but this is their territory; that much rings of clear truth. It is natural to attack unknowns that enter it.]
[...but it's simply natural order. That's an idea she clings to; there's nothing to feel guilt or shame about. But then, it also seems that her engineer friend is on good terms with them...an idea she would have considered ludicrous, had it occurred to her through her own mind, along with any concept of negotiation. He's just full of surprises, that one. Assaulting them, then, would put his reputation at risk now that she's been seen with him.]
[But then why take her at all? He would have hardly needed power like hers for an errand like this. And then, even in her broke mind, it occurs to her somewhere that he might've been trying to make a point. Attacking them in their home?]
[Out here is where the shards are. The Monument needs shards. Preparing herself for the trials ahead...that required shards, too. If she kept herself strictly to business, she could say that was all she needed. If they left her in peace, she would have no reason to harm them. Ikuri made forays into their world, but current realities demanded it. She never sought to seize territory from them; if they didn't grasp that before now, perhaps ensuring they did would prevent further losses on their side.]
[But a beast of her hungers needed trial and combat, too. Needed the rush of battle and the surge of bloody victory: it kept her balanced, focused. (Sorry, Zuko; that part of her's not so easily cured.) Some quiet corner of Ikuri finds that strange: to hunger for battle, that made sense, but for blood? She isn't sure that the residents of her world were all that fond of the killing part of the equation...but it was, universally, the price of failure in that world. It wasn't permanent, but how much did that matter? Certainly everyone knew it.]
[Point was...she understood well enough the need to fight - everyone in her realm had it, presumably. But the need to kill? Was that always there?]
[...and quite honestly, if this is yet another group of people/opponents that she has to "be careful of" and avoid slaying - the list of "acceptable" creatures to kill is growing ever smaller. Who exactly do you intend to leave her with?]
[Someone has to die, Colin. Maybe not today, maybe not here; maybe not Gasfella, maybe not squirts. But someone must.]
[There cannot be endless harmony. As she'd told Ibuki herself not long ago, she is not a creature who could thrive in a world like that.]
[Someone must lose. Not the simple trite defeat that comes with these stale contests in artificial arenas, but the almighty judgment that falls upon one for failing to survive a mighty adversary.]
AND THEN I KEEP FORGETTING AMULETS AUTO-TRANSLATE, freaking *whoops.*
[...but it's simply natural order. That's an idea she clings to; there's nothing to feel guilt or shame about. But then, it also seems that her engineer friend is on good terms with them...an idea she would have considered ludicrous, had it occurred to her through her own mind, along with any concept of negotiation.
He's just full of surprises, that one.Assaulting them, then, would put his reputation at risk now that she's been seen with him.][But then why take her at all? He would have hardly needed power like hers for an errand like this. And then, even in her broke mind, it occurs to her somewhere that he might've been trying to make a point. Attacking them in their home?]
[Out here is where the shards are. The Monument needs shards. Preparing herself for the trials ahead...that required shards, too. If she kept herself strictly to business, she could say that was all she needed. If they left her in peace, she would have no reason to harm them. Ikuri made forays into their world, but current realities demanded it. She never sought to seize territory from them; if they didn't grasp that before now, perhaps ensuring they did would prevent further losses on their side.]
[But a beast of her hungers needed trial and combat, too. Needed the rush of battle and the surge of bloody victory: it kept her balanced, focused.
(Sorry, Zuko; that part of her's not so easily cured.)Some quiet corner of Ikuri finds that strange: to hunger for battle, that made sense, but for blood? She isn't sure that the residents of her world were all that fond of the killing part of the equation...but it was, universally, the price of failure in that world. It wasn't permanent, but how much did that matter? Certainly everyone knew it.][Point was...she understood well enough the need to fight - everyone in her realm had it, presumably. But the need to kill? Was that always there?][...and quite honestly, if this is yet another group of people/opponents that she has to "be careful of" and avoid slaying - the list of "acceptable" creatures to kill is growing ever smaller. Who exactly do you intend to leave her with?]
[Someone has to die, Colin. Maybe not today, maybe not here; maybe not Gasfella, maybe not squirts. But someone must.]
[There cannot be endless harmony. As she'd told Ibuki herself not long ago, she is not a creature who could thrive in a world like that.]
[Someone must lose. Not the simple trite defeat that comes with these stale contests in artificial arenas, but the almighty judgment that falls upon one for failing to survive a mighty adversary.]
[We can't lose that.]