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With a snort, Grieve squatted low to be slightly closer to eye level, "Like you ********' need one?" With a grin she added, "Better to just cut off a limb or two, yeah?"

He looked like a limp pile of clothes and bruises. Pretty hair, though. She could make use of something like that. Wasn't why she was here, but that didn't mean she couldn't covet what could be some quality craft supplies. Holding up her hands in a gesture of reassurance that didn't suit her expression in the least, Grieve went on, "I'm just here to chat while the thinking sorts do their thinking and the feeling sorts do their ********' feelings." Basically, she was waiting for the action.

"What's your world and sphere? Been around awhile, maybe I knew a version of you once."

She flicked his forehead in a motion that looked casual, but there was a precision to it that would leave his head with a new, sharp ache. "But why not waste time here? If you acted softer, prettier, you'd make 'em question themselves more. You trying to make it more satisfying to beat the s**t 'outta you?"

Long fingers reached out for him again, but this time flashing toward his hair. "It takes at least five years to grow a new you, and maybe that little s**t will say he doesn't care about whoever the ******** you were." She gave a low, croak of a laugh and twirled his hair. "Wouldn't be very nice memories, huh? All broken and ******** up on chaos, even before Cybele's squire and a ******** Earth knight took you down."

Another laugh, "How's it feel, anyway? That sticky sweet ichor winding through your power, poisoning everything unlucky enough to know you. Has it made you hungry yet?"

Spindly fingers fully gripped at his hair, not quite pulling, but passively giving him a new way to struggle and hurt himself. "Can't say I'm good at playing soft myself, but I know the tricks. Wouldn't be good if I knew you?" Her other hand came up to idly poke at his cheek. "If it made me see you as someone to like, 'stead of just another unlucky piece of s**t? Or leverage your future, act like you're thinking maybe you'll purify."

And then she was pulling at his cheek, "Maybe cry a little you stupid ********> Grieve toyed with the broken boy like he was some cast-off doll. Unloved and no longer cherished, but still whole enough to play with.

"No, venit," because he reminded her of that vibrant little bird, a hunter of its own kind, quick to die once caged. "When you hunger for our long deaths. For our spectacular splashes across the walls, your teeth in our necks, and the loving approval of something that only wants to eat you in turn. Or..."

She paused, and then her smile grew, wide and jagged, "Are you hungry for a snack?" Letting go of his cheek, Grieve moved to grip his jaw. There was a pressure in those fingers that suggested he may not have a choice.

xkolina

"Venit," Grieve crooned again, her voice uglier for the gentleness. "You do. You'll always be wanting." Untangling her grip on his hair, she reached into the aether, into the space between spaces, and pulled out something.

"Chaos just loves to ********' eat and eat. It'll eat at you, and it'll have you eating at yourself. Maybe if you learn to cry a little, you'll live to ********' see it." The grip on his jaw tightened, making it more and more painful to keep his mouth clenched closed. An acrid, wet smell neared his face.

"My world was already a shithole when chaos took over. People almost didn't notice, all us little wretches were always starving right? But then, turned out, nobody was ever full either. And was it even food if it wasn't screaming?"

With a sigh, something was pressed hard against Aelius's teeth. Something furry and wet with cold blood. "Still fresh, venit. No worries." Caught just that morning, in Kiyoshi's yard, a rat of the gardens and not of the streets. A genuine kindness of sorts.

The smile never left Grieve's face, calm despite the violence of her hands. Punishing fingers forced his mouth open, grinding the furry body against his teeth and tongue until there was a snap of delicate bone. "Bite down, then chew around the crunchy bits," the ghoulish senshi instructed, as if he might not remember how to eat. "If you spit it out, I'll get mad."

Forceful and insistent as the boy retched in the face of her generosity, it wasn't a brief or easy struggle. Even after she eased up with a frown and pulled the thing away, the feel and taste of it lingered. Nails biting further into his cheeks, Grieve looked down at him as if looking at her own dinner. Something small and scurrying, a bit of vermin no one could possibly miss.

And then her grip softened once more, cupping his cheek and wiping a tear away with a thumb. "See? All you gotta do is cry a little." With her free hand, she brought up the fairly wretched remains of the rat and took a casual bite. Studying Aelius as she chewed, Grieve gave a small nod and swallowed.

"Understand?"

If he didn't...she was willing to start the lesson again. They probably still had some time for it.

"What a good boy." The half eaten rat vanished back into her space, and Grieve stood up, wiping her hands off on her uniform. The gesture left bits of remains and a streak of his spit across her skirt, but the senshi clearly didn't mind it all too much. "If you survive, remember to cry when you should."

Before leaving, she bent down and gently placed something beside him. "And to eat when you're hungry." A second rat, whole and untouched. Waiting upon necessity.