[It’s a curious thing, the sort of upbringing that produces a woman like Gavial. Throw an orphan to be collectively raised by a warrior society, and very quickly she’ll learn that the best way to get attention and praise is by being strong. Fighting is for fun, oh absolutely. But it’s also how just about everything from minor disagreements to leadership positions get decided back in Acahualla. And she was—and still is, frankly—the best at it.
So it becomes the core of her identity to an almost dangerous degree. That becomes a problem when people think she needs to stop for her own good. Like, say, when a terminal disease enters the picture.
Gavial tries to tighten her hold on the girl, who remains glaring daggers at Cassian even as she tries to wriggle herself free. It really is something of a monumental effort not to just let her go and let this fight start in earnest (because really, who could ever challenge her more in a fight than herself?), but she holds steady and meets his gaze as he looks to her.]
Fighting is just about all my people know how to do. And when she got sick, they didn’t want her to do it anymore.
[After Gavial left home, the common question from both the mercenaries and later the other operators of Rhodes Island had always been why she’d left in the first place. And she’d shrug, tell them she’d been ostracized, and move on. But the reality? It was kindness, it was concern. And it stung because it took away the one thing she’d been good at.
Even now, she doesn’t think she’d ever really been lying to them.
The young Gavial clearly doesn’t want to let this stalemate stand, as suddenly her free hand darts forward to try to seize Cassian by the wrist of the hand that’s holding her and then pull.]
no subject
So it becomes the core of her identity to an almost dangerous degree. That becomes a problem when people think she needs to stop for her own good. Like, say, when a terminal disease enters the picture.
Gavial tries to tighten her hold on the girl, who remains glaring daggers at Cassian even as she tries to wriggle herself free. It really is something of a monumental effort not to just let her go and let this fight start in earnest (because really, who could ever challenge her more in a fight than herself?), but she holds steady and meets his gaze as he looks to her.]
Fighting is just about all my people know how to do. And when she got sick, they didn’t want her to do it anymore.
[After Gavial left home, the common question from both the mercenaries and later the other operators of Rhodes Island had always been why she’d left in the first place. And she’d shrug, tell them she’d been ostracized, and move on. But the reality? It was kindness, it was concern. And it stung because it took away the one thing she’d been good at.
Even now, she doesn’t think she’d ever really been lying to them.
The young Gavial clearly doesn’t want to let this stalemate stand, as suddenly her free hand darts forward to try to seize Cassian by the wrist of the hand that’s holding her and then pull.]