The Philosophy of Mercy

[credit_not_blame]

The worst thing about trying to be a person who lives life deliberately is that sometimes you make a choice you don't understand.

Well, at least that's the worst thing that Stacia is dealing with at the moment. There's probably other worse things she'll discover as she continues to move through life as a deliberate person. Life is full of 'worsts' (and 'bests', she's clinging to the 'bests' with every scrap of strength she has because otherwise there's no point to anything at all, and that way lies Harano and the Wyrm).

Magic bullshit happens, and sometimes it's the kind of magic bullshit that forces you look at something you'd put aside because you had other, more urgent things to deal with. Which is what happened to Stacia, and because she doesn't currently have another urgent distraction, it's gnawing on the back of her brain and driving her crazy. Obviously she can't go back and undo the decision, but she wants -- needs -- to understand why she'd done what she'd done so that she's more informed in the future.

What is the difference between showing mercy to an enemy verses leaving them alive to stab you again later?

Fortunately, between other magic bullshit, Stacia's own friendliness and charm, and a certain someone's absolute refusal to hold a grudge even when he really should, Stacia has someone who can probably help her break down that question and come up with a satisfactory answer.

She goes looking for Dan.

Comments

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan makes an effort to go find Stacia every other month or so, which he never tells her is at Bunny's behest. It's not that he doesn't want to see Stacia; it's that Dan's spent almost none of his life with any reason to stretch the social muscle of keeping in touch, and as such, unless he's being outright prodded into maintaining his friendships, he tends to forget how long has lapsed between seeing people. When he was a child, he lived in a bunker; when he was a young adult, he had no longterm relationships to hold onto; on the Rig and in the Wilderlands, his relationships were managed for him, and he couldn't let them slide unattended to even if he wanted to.

So to ensure that he continued to spend time with Stacia (and Elle, Ace, and the others), he's put Stacia's world in his "circuit", the worlds he skips to and from with the Guardians' magic powering his travels, working on the grimmer, more small-scale sorts of mysteries and tragedies than Bunny and his comrades have time for. Stacia's doomed world offers up a lot of opportunities to de-escalate conflicts between monsters, and Dan's becoming increasingly fluent in the complex politics therein. Every time he gets involved in solving a mystery here, he gives Stacia a call, and greets her with a hug and her favorite order of coffee.

"Howdy, stranger."

He looks better than she's ever seen him, alight with having work to do and ways to keep his mind occupied but no longer having to get by on malnutrition, gas station vodka and a prayer between cases. His hands are so minimally chewed that there's currently no broken skin, and he's gained a few pounds, although somewhere between now and the last time Stacia saw him he lost a tooth way in the back of his smile. It's not hard to guess how, as he starts their walk through the woods and takes a sip of a cotton candy-flavored frappuccino.

"Just got back from a kidnapping in Vancouver. Turns out it was just your average humans having a custody battle. Ugly, not supernatural." He shrugs, then pauses, noting an unspoken question in her bearing. His expression gets concerned. "What's on your mind?"