The Bar at the End of the Universe

It's the time of year where the residents of Iron Town start coming out again. (They need to collect as many resources as possible before winter really sets in.) It's also the time of year where the residents of Iron Town start hunting in earnest. (Not that they don't do it already.)

Every year, the grazes get closer and closer, and San doesn't want to have to wait until things come to a head; she wants to destroy the town and all of its damned inhabitants now. It doesn't matter what she wants, though. Mother won't allow it to happen. Not now, not until the time is right. She hates the humans as much as her daughter but she knows what the rules are.

That doesn't meant that the humans do.

When San enters the bar, there's blood on her arms, her face, her chest, her legs, everywhere.

(It's not hers.)

She's wearing an expression that says (very well) that she isn't really ready for the bar to appear. As usual, but perhaps with a bit more speed, she makes her way out back, making no bones about how badly she wants to be outside. (How badly she doesn't want to be around these people.) Her brother's been shot and her door's gone (she checked) and there isn't much she wouldn't give just to have things be the way they're supposed to be. The way nature dictated from the beginning.

But it's an impossibility, and as soon as she's far enough out onto the grass, she simply lays down and closes her eyes.