[PRP] Your Rite Isn't Right! [Eve x Grave] [FIN]

[Chrystali]

He was scowling by the time the rest of the bones were buried, glowing eyes narrowed beneath his bone helm. Grave tamped the ground with his hooves, still staring at the female in accusation as he worked, as if he couldn't quite wrap his head around what she'd said. Quite literally, he could not.

Head held high, arrogance visible in his stance, he asked in a gravelly, indignant manner, "What do you mean, my way isn't the only way?"

It was work. He'd been doing this longer than she'd been alive! He knew what he was doing, he could hear the deceased, he was not some upstart whippersnapper with an opinion! Even so, Grave regarded the grey female he'd yet again run into, jaw clenched as he awaited an answer that would no doubt be quickly discarded. Kids these days.

Aric Val with a finished edit

 

[Aric Val]

"It isn't the only way."

She repeated back to Grave, grey eyes following his every move and already knowing that look he was giving her, a look that meant that this would either be a long discussion or a short one. Of course Evenfall respected her mentor's (as she started to call him in her head) way so very much, he was focused, deliberate, it was simple yet meaningful, but at least to her, it only focused on one facet.

But it was as if she grew another head in the bucks eyes, she moved a little closer, blinking at him. "Watching you has taught me many things, I am grateful." she paused, eyes briefly on the ground he had covered, the bones laid to rest. "Only I also touch on another part of their journey and celebrate that."  

[Chrystali]

Despite his eyes glowing, it was obvious they were rolled in derision. "Life. So ridiculously important to you." He scoffed, remembering their meeting at the ice hole well enough. Shaking off his pelt from excess dirt, he tamped it down with his hooves and turned away. "Do you hold their little dead hooves too? Tell them it's going to be okay?" A guffaw escaped the buck, tickled by his own humor. Surely no one else would be.

Ambling away from the site, clearly not going to stand around to discuss anything that started with him being told he was wrong, he didn't look back to see if she'd follow. He knew she would. She wanted something from him. A memory flickered in his mind - a dream? - but it fell away from him as quickly as it came. He had no doubts, but it was still strange. She was alive, after all.

Aric Val

 

[Aric Val]

"Life is." Was her immediate, solid response to Grave, her voice gentle as always.

Though the next words made her frown a little, "Of course not, it's not like that." and the doe did follow, trotting over behind and catching up to walk by his side, eyes watching him like the curious kimeti she was. She probably already knew by then that she'd always try to follow.

"What you do when you are living is a journey and continued after death. -- it is merely another way to look at the end of these creatures."

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

"You're ignoring the question." His voice was tight, if not a little indignant. "You said there's more than one way. How? I don't care about their lives. They could have been owlcat murderers or a hand of the MotherFather for all I care. What matters is they - and we - all face the same end. That is the only respect they deserve - to acknowledge their passing and send them on their way."

Clearly, she'd struck a sore spot. But then again, who liked some young upstart telling them they're wrong and the way they do things isn't it? The audacity! "I don't care about how they lived," he repeated firmly, "and I have no interest in the living. If you do, it's your choice." And it's wrong, he added mentally, just to be a petulant old man as he was.

Aric Val

 

[Aric Val]

"It's just --- different." Evenfall said quickly, grey eyes looking at her mentor. She hadn't meant to give him a wrong impression, especially him.

"Not that acknowledging the living or not is better or worse. Like you said, it's my choice -- I want to remember when their heart beat once before." She paused, giving him a softer look. "That is my way."

She looked up thoughtfully and back down on the ground, stepping on the earth of the swamp. "- And I have much to learn in your ways, the respect and process you bury these bones is something I can watch till the day I am buried, myself."  

[Chrystali]

Grave felt that if he rolled his eyes much more, they may just fall out of their sockets. "How can you remember what you've never met?" he asked chiding, a touch of sarcasm betraying his mild impatience with the matter. "Do you just give all the dead beings happy stories? That sounds like you're trying to assure yourself of your work more than respecting them." The last word was nearly spat, annoyance making his hackles nearly stand on end. It was like arguing with a child! No, your pet beetle wont live forever, no matter how well you take care of it. It denied sense! It defied rationale! Nevermind that he was arguing about it, it was her that was being unreasonable.

Said the sullen, grouchy old man.

"I hope a fire takes me," he grumbled under his breath, "I don't want to be buried by some upstart who thinks they knew my life!"

Aric Val

 

[Aric Val]

Evenfall looked at him with slightly widened eyes at how he said the words, so quickly he turned more and more displeased with her words it seemed.

"Happy or sad or filled with anger -- it was a life. And that's what I remember of them." the doe paused, "I certainly didn't mean it that way." It did pain Eve that ha had insulted him -- she only wanted to tell him of her own experience from another perspective, certainly didn't assume it was better.

She walked a bit closer to the lighter kimeti, eyes searching for his that were looking elsewhere. His atitude towards her and the way he regarded her obviously did affect her deeply, she did ask to work under him after all. Though she was as entranced with living beings as well as the dead -- she wanted to explain further.

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

"Then mind your words--!" he snarled, not having realized she was so close when he did so. It made his reaction angrier, more aggressive, and that wasn't at all who he was. Blue eyes blazing, he growled beneath his adorned skull and turned away from her once more, marching forward.

"You can't remember a stranger, girl," he half growled, half mouthed around his shoulder, tossing angry glances of blue towards her. "You can't pretend to be a friend to the dead. How else could you have possibly meant it, if not for your own thoughts and ideas?"

Don't do it. Don't do it don't do it don't do it-- "Which are WRONG," he spat, tail whipping behind him. Clearly, he didn't know when to shut up, not unlike a petulant child.

Aric Val

 

[Aric Val]

She actually had to take a step back when he said those words to her, wincing slightly at the aggression in his tone. Probably the first time she had felt terribly sad, but even then -- she didn't think her mindset was wrong, an idea she still wanted to impart to him -- but not at this moment.

Evenfall didn't realize she was trailing back as he was walking in front of her, throwing annoyed glances at her. She didn't like it at all, and it was unlike him, he wasn't exactly sunshine and roses but -- she liked how he was. "I... just want to give a last goodbye--"

Her words were cut short, lowering her eyes for a moment before catching up to him, the now-dim star looking at Grave intently. Quiet for that moment.

Chrystali

BYE EVE

 

[Chrystali]

She said it in a way that gave him the impression it wasn't the first time she'd had to say goodbye. Whether it was true or not, Grave didn't know - he didn't know a lot about Eve, other than her being minded in the way he was - but he was too annoyed to ask. Annoyed with her. Annoyed with himself.

He didn't know what to say, so he said nothing, allowing their airs to be in silence. It was safer that way, he figured, no room for misunderstanding or argument. It was comfortable this way. Kind of.

And so they walked, and Grave chewed on the exchange, as well as what it would mean for their future.

MotherFather, but he really didn't like the living.

Aric Val