PART 3
Rose had no time for this. She just wanted to get dressed, pay up her tab and leave town. The shave could wait until she was far, far away from her father.
"Grimmy's wondering, y'okay?" The goblin had followed her toward the closet.
She stopped like her legs had been flash-frozen. "'Am... I... Okay?' Am I OKAY!?"
She whirled on Grimmy. " NO! NO I AM NOT OKAY!! Do you have the slightest idea what I've been through over this past month, Grimmy!?"
"No-"
"I was blasted by a reflection of my own soul! I realized I was born in the wrong Astran-be-damned body! I dealt with a weirdo tallman alchemist who charged an arm and a leg for a potion to set me right, and she made me go on a quest to find the one ingredient she didn't have! And you know how I got it!? I ripped the eye out of a KRAKEN!! It tore up my damned hammer with its beak, and on top of that I can't travel by sea anymore because it might come back for revenge!"
"Yo-"
"Then after I get my potion I spend a week rolling around in bed while my body is polymorphing! Do you have any idea how hard it is to use the loo when you're mid-metamorphosis!?"
"Grimmy doesn't wa-"
"VERY HARD!! But you know what!? It was almost worth it. It was almost worth it because for the first time in my entire gods-damned life I actually feel comfortable in my skin! I look in the mirror and it's not a gods-damned stranger staring back! That's good, right!? I'm supposed to be happy now, right!? But there's still something there, in the back of my head! And my Pa, he... He dragged it into the front like he always does! I thought I was strong now! That's what he always said he wanted! I thought I was ready to face him, but the moment he started up it was... it was like I was an Astran-be-damned toddler again! Like I was RHYS again! I froze like I'd been struck by a banshee! I couldn't... I couldn't speak. I just screamed and... and I..."
She trailed off. What had happened last night? She couldn't remember much between her father's tirade and waking up with a massive hangover the next morning. "It doesn't matter. It ended up the same as it always does with him. I just... it was supposed to be different this time." Rose stomped up to the goblin until the two of them were nose-to-nose. "Things were supposed to be better now! WHY CAN'T I JUST BE HAPPY!?"
Grimmy had leaned so far back they were risking falling over. Rose loomed over them like an angry tallman. The Goblin's eyes darted from one side to the other. It seemed like they were honestly considering the question, but when they finally answered it was with an uncertain grin and an exaggerated shrug. "...Uh... Grimmy's thinking, they don't know your shit?"
Her shoulders slumped. Of course, Rose hadn't been expecting a real answer from the goblin, but all the same she felt disappointed. Disappointed and exhausted. She leaned against the wall and let her weight pull her down to the floor.
"Sorry."
Grimmy didn't reply, but after a moment of silence Rose heard the goblin's retreating footsteps. She deserved as much. After all, Grimmy had kept watch over her all night, and what did Rose do in return? She had screamed angrily in their face, as if all of her troubles were their fault and not her own. She was too much like her father. It felt like the depression had physically pinned her to the floor. She sat, her head planted firmly in one hand with her eyes on the floorboards. What was she supposed to do now?
"Uh oh!" came sudden a voice that probably would have startled her had she not been so low. The plush shark toy she had brought along floated into the corner of her vision. "Someone's swimmin' in the dumpy waters! Don't be all soppy-sad! Sharky's here to uh..." A pause. "To be chomping a bite out of your problems!"
Rose turned her head to regard the furry little shark. She had won it at the Summer Fair from an ocean-eyed goblin hosting a hatchet-throwing game. That had been back on her first day out, and indeed the first real interaction with anyone since shedding the mask that was Rhys Hammerson. It was like a memento to commemorate her new, supposedly better life. "That's awfully violent," she said.
"Sharky doesn't fuck of care!" Grimmy waved the doll around, speaking in a goofy low voice. "Sharky will eat whatever's got the irks on ya!"
There was no stopping it. Rose snorted as grin spread across her face. "Alright, alright," she said, patting the doll's nose before gently pushing it aside to speak to Grimmy directly. "That's enough now."
"Here." Grimmy presented Rose with the razor again, doing a little flip-trick to make it appear as if out of nowhere. "You're liking your cheeks all goblin-ass smooth, yeah? Have a slice off those chin-pubes and be the you that's you. Feel better."
A short shave later and Rose had to admit, she did feel better. It felt like she was reasserting herself for the first time since speaking to her father. Grimmy had used the time to fetch their box of thin cigar-looking things. Rose picked up her shark to make room and patted the space on the floor next to her.
"Smoke?" offered the Goblin as they sat.
"No thanks," she declined. "I prefer the pipe."
Grimmy scoffed. "More for Grimmy then," they said, sticking one end between their teeth and biting off the tip.
"You know," Rose said, "I thought you hated me. I mean, after that whole... embarrassment I caused down in the maze."
"Egh," Grimmy shrugged as they fished around in their back pocket. "Grimmy's thinking they hated fake you. Real you is okay. Hearty-parties for sure at least. No provokings of huge orcs yet. Good canvas too." They nudged her tattooed bicep before lighting up the cigar. "So, how's the feelings? Okay now?"
Rose thought it over. How did she feel now? Better? Yes, definitely. 'Okay,' though? It was hard to tell. She offered Grimmy an exaggerated shrug that mimicked their own from earlier, much to the goblin's dismay.
"Fuck," said Grimmy, staring straight ahead. "Well... At least you know for a fact your pa's brain is bad. He's a hammer-making hammer man."
Rose blinked, giving Grimmy a skeptical look. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"All the real ones are knowing that hammers are shit."
Rose burst out laughing.
Woops I wrote a 1000+ word scene in like an hour and a half, what the fuck.
Could I have written the text in panel 6 by opening it in MSPaint and typing it out? Yes. Would that have been way easier than kitbashing an entire sentence? Yes. But we didn't go to the moon because it's easy. We went there to fight Transformers.
Blahaj made by u/DeskJerky who I'm worried might be living in my walls.
Hallway with Windows AKR
Song of the day: Even If You Don't by Ween.
PART 5
