Expectations will only lead to failure

"It would be a challenge," Mantis agreed easily with a nod of her head, not at all afraid even though Shuri was, once again, lurking by Mantis' balcony. The glint in Shuri's eyes gave her away, easy to spot in the complete darkness of the night. The empath stepped closer. "Are you not cold?"

"Even if I was, what would you plan to do?" Shuri slinked out of the shadows, the light still catching her eyes just so. "Make me a cup of hot chocolate? A warm shower?" Her eyes darted to a spot behind Mantis.

Mantis went still, though she remained unafraid. Her expression unguarded, honest and gentle as Shuri spoke, and Mantis listened — really listened. She didn't fight it when Shuri's grip tightened around her wrist. Didn't try to free herself. Her sole focus was upon the Queen, her words, the pain and anger and grief lacing each syllable.

Her gaze fell to the space between them, letting Shuri's words sink in, letting them wrap around her heart like vines and squeeze. Because she understood, and she could hardly blame the young woman for wielding her rage like a weapon. Mantis released a breath.

"You don't deserve to be remembered as a tyrant," she said, voice quiet, yet steady as starlight, gentle hands cleaning the blood off Shuri's brow. "And no one wants you to burn yourself to the ground." Mantis paused, studying the young Queen's reaction. "You don't have to give up your anger... but choosing self-destruction helps no one."

She picked up another cloth, dipped it in the warm water and began wiping at Shuri's shoulder.

"I don't deserve a lot of things, but life has a way of not caring. So why give it the chance to choose the narrative for me when I can do it myself?" Shuri pulled some of her shirt out of the way so that the woman could have better access to cleaning her shoulder.

"It does if it burns down Wakanda's enemies with me. What my home chooses to do with their rule after I leave is no longer my concern. But what they can't say is that I didn't do everything I could to keep them safe. That I wasn't the blade they needed to stop people from taking what doesn't belong to them." Her brother had proved that playing nice only went so far, because bending one's knee and lowering your head only made it easier for one's enemies to cut it off. Fire with fire. She would be just as ruthless as they were if need be, to prove to the world that Wakanda could survive without it.

Despite the gleam in Shuri's eyes, and the disdain in her expression, and the hostility in her words, Mantis still couldn't bring herself to fear the young Queen. She did respect Shuri, but there was a difference between respect and fear. Her cutting, sharp words were only meant to push Mantis away, but the empath's patience had been shaped by centuries of practice. Shuri would not disrupt it.

"You confuse my solitude with being alone. They sound the same, don't they? But do you see solitude as a sad thing? As something to be pitied? Because I relish in it. I enjoy it. Because I don't need the company of others to feel better about myself or do a better job. Or to even be a better person. That is not what my life is about right now." Shuri tapped a Vibranium claw against the brow of her cowl.

"Taboo, no. But it isn't serving the purpose of getting out of this situation, is it?" Shuri folded her arms and gazed up at the opening high above. She was without her suit, so she has no claws to climb out. Leaving her in this proverbial hole with the blonde. Shuri couldn't blame her, though; she probably mistook Shuri's politeness for nicety.

Mantis did not flinch, but all playfulness vanished from her expression. She inclined her head in agreement, antennae slightly droopy, though her expression remained unafraid when she lifted her eyes to meet Shuri's.

"Very well. I will," she murmured, a solemn, almost dutiful quality to her tone. The empath offered a smile, soft and shy. "Thank you for your trust. I know it is not easy."

I know it is not easy.

Truer words haven't been spoken. What, in life, ever is? But Shuri's offer of trust would be kept on a short leash, just enough to let the job get done. Offering too much would give them more reasons to take advantage of her.

“Maybe he’ll talk to you. But me?” He sweeps a hand at himself. “White foreign mutant walks up to him askin’ for help, what do you think he’ll say? You think he’ll offer me a drink?” He shakes his head with a grunt. 

Shuri put down whatever she was working on so that she could turn around and face him fully.

Shuri was correct, that did surprise her. She could hardly blame the young woman for being uninterested in the stars in the sky, when her duties as both Black Panther and Queen of Wakanda demanded constant attention. A part of Mantis worried that Shuri would burn herself out.

Shuri's lip curled to the point exposing a particularly sharp canine.

"He challenged my brother for the throne. Letting him rule in my stead would be giving him exactly what he's wanted all along." It wasn't a matter of trust; for M'Baku specifically, the decision was fueled by spite. She wasn't going to let him win where her brother had kept him reigned in.

"You know something? It does make me feel special... because I am." The talons land true, Xue's bleeding now, but she doesn't seem especially bothered... or especially aware. She's in the grip of the fight now, eagerness only rising despite what should be flagging stamina in the face of a much better-trained opponent. "I've been travelling the whole freakin' world looking for people strong enough to teach me what life is really about..."

The slash landed, but the hook does not, and at close range Xue can get a nasty shortened sweep off for her troubles. Normally directed at the opponent's legs to hopefully unbalance them and make them easier to take to the floor, with Shuri having dropped so low it's in some real danger of hitting the Black Panther in the head. "How 'bout you? Think you were getting an easy one tonight? Think you were just gonna beat up some pathetic loser and go out feelin' like you're the best around?"

Shuri's grin grew at hearing that confidence in the woman's voice. She believed she was special; Shuri couldn't disagree with that, not with the powers she'd been showing off. Definitely someone she would prefer having on her side than against. Another tool on her belt to keep the world spinning in the direction she wanted.

The sweep connects directly with the side of her temple, jolting her neck to one side, but not enough to knock her over, not when her suit took a majority of the kinetic force away from it. Yet, Shuri purposefully faltered, dropping to her side for a good show.

Her hand closed over Shuri's. The young woman's anger stole her breath, burned within her ribcage and filled her lungs with smoke. In her abdomen, beneath the anger, Mantis could feel Shuri's grief and guilt, so painful that the empath was momentarily overwhelmed.

But she didn't let go of Shuri's hand.

"I don't blame you for feeling this way," she murmured. "Believe me when I say I don't. But if you reject Bast wouldn't you be rejecting a part of Wakanda?"

"That question sits on the premise that Bast is real to begin with. It's not new, mythos on how the lands came to be. Romulus and Remus. Noah's Ark. Atlantis. All stories to make mundane things seem more exciting than they really are." Shuri ignored the sensation of Mantis inside her mind; if she wanted to feel all of it, she wasn't going to stop her.

"Oh no, I understand exactly who I'm talking to," he said. The Grandmaster made exaggerated flourishes with his hands in a mock gesture of reverence. "I'm talking to the Queen of... uh... someplace? And the... um... bug woman."

Mantis huffed – she was starting to view death as the more enticing option – and she struggled again, but the bonds were unyielding. The Grandmaster's presence was still there, also unyielding.

"What do you want?" Mantis demanded.

"To play a little game!" His grin took on a boyish quality. A kid with a new toy. Two new toys, both awfully sick of him already. "You see, I'm taking a little... um... vacation from my place on Sakaar. But being on vacation doesn't mean I should have fun alone, now does it?"

He studied their reactions to what he would say next.

Shuri missed most of what he said, mostly because she'd tuned it all out. Nothing of it was important to her; he was just another blowhard who enjoyed hearing himself talk. She finally slipped back into the conversation once he was done.

"First: gross. No one wants to see your dusty grandpa sheets. Second, if we choose not to break free, that sort of ends your plan, doesn't it?" She stared at him drolly while she worked a Vibranium nail against one of the bonds behind her back.

Blue eyes met brown. She knew what Shuri was thinking; because everyone thought it. The Judgmental stares, the questioning glances. The look that makes you feel smaller. That subtle questioning of your place. Everyone thinks she’s different.

A quick incline of her head, a polite acknowledgment despite the tension which flowed through the air. Diplomacy was a necessary evil. It ‘was apart of the job’, is what her mother had said. Maybe not quite using those words, but Vali had understood the point in any case.

Her parents, and Uncle Thor had been invited to Wakanda. And of course, they had brought her and her older brother, Narvi along. Narvi, being the oldest had already dealt with diplomacy, him accompanying this trip was just a formality. She was the middle child. She had not. She needed to learn how to interact with other realms, learn diplomacy, learn about trade. She of course had heard of these things in theory, and learned about them in her readings and teachings by the royal tutors and her parents alike. But learning from experience was different from simply learning from a book or lesson.

Still…she wasn’t sure this whole thing was a good idea.

Nyx, the youngest of the Loki children had stayed home, far too young to understand what was happening. She was to stay with their grandparents while the rest of the family went. Lucky her.

Shuri could tell from the young woman's reaction that she didn't want to be here. Neither did she. But their birthrights demanded that they follow formalities for the time being. At least, until the adults were ready to speak with each other.

As Queen Ramonda led the way, engaging in idle conversation with Loki and the eldest child, Shuri lingered behind so that she could keep stride with the only other person who shared her lack of enthusiasm for all this.

"Can it?" Her head tilted, and her brow furrowed as if considering the Queen's words. Could their conversation really be about whatever either of them wanted?

Mantis drew in a breath before she forced herself to look into Shuri's slitted pupils.

As soon as she uttered the word "mother," the air surrounding them spiked with tension and electricity that buzzed right before a lightning strike. Shuri's expression, however, remained unchanged.

"Because her choices were out of my control. There was nothing I could have done to save her. She chose to antagonize Namor, and she ended up paying the price for it," she replied coldly. As much as she mourned her mother, there had been no power in Shuri's hands to undo it. She'd given herself up to spare Williams' life, willingly went with the Talokan prince to spare another death. Only to be repaid with more of it. There was just no winning for her, apparently.

Margo smile in return was also tight, as she nods. " Yes I do, and before we continue I just want to reassure that I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. And I your right, some sercerts are best not to be aired to the public. For the record, there are people here who don't agree with how you and your family in wakanda have been treated. I know how messed up the system can be here but we can talk about that later."

Shuri blew a raspberry in thought. There were way too many things she could talk about to satisfy the woman's vague request. Too many things that had no substance or were things she cared nothing for.

"Despite everything, trade continues to flow in both directions without complaint. The weather in Wakanda has never been nicer. M'Baku has had many suitors as of late, but I'm sure he isn't interested in any of them. What else..." She tapped on her lip in thought, trying to think of whatever mundane thing she could share.

Mantis kept her true opinions to herself. She had no desire to get into an argument now, when she could feel her own eyelids growing heavy with the exhaustion the Queen was carrying. The empath had the belief that hope wasn't truly tested until there was despair. Courage wasn't truly tested until there was fear. And empathy wasn't truly tested until one came across someone who certainly didn't deserve it.

"You haven't forgotten these things, smiling feels impossible right now, that's all. You don't have to hold your tears in, unless the Wakandan tradition instructs you to do so. And you haven't pushed all your friends away."

She moved, meeting Shuri's gaze and offering a warm smile as she began cleaning the Queen's face, those eyes that had been so bright once. Shuri had such an unparalleled mind, a face that was still beautiful, albeit hardened by anger. She looked youthful still.

So young and so full of grief.

Shuri's hand snapped to Mantis' wrist, pausing the cleaning of her brows. "I didn't let it take my family either. But it seems determined to strip everything away until they get what they want. It shrouded me its darkness. I'm merely paying it back to them."

Her grip subconsciously tightened just a little, though Mantis would be spared the pain of her claws. She had shed enough tears for a lifetime, enough within a few months after the death of both her brother and mother. One disaster after another, without any time to breathe. The world had sufficiently suffocated her and stolen everything she held dear. Including the person she used to be.

And now she was reborn in fire and hatred and spite. Because it was the only thing left brewing in her chest that she could hold onto. That wouldn't slip so easily from her fingers.

Then she remembered herself and let go of her wrist.

He took a step back. “I don’t want war with you. You better calm down and not sharpen your claws. I don’t want to harm you. This isn’t a threat this is for real.”

"In case you haven't taken note, the entire world has made it my enemy.They did so long before I took the throne. I'm simply giving them reasons to reconsider their actions to spare their pitiful lives. Surely, you've never had a problem with cutting down those who've ventured too close to your borders, yes? Do we need to drag those drowned bodies up from your waters, the ones you drowned with your siren songs?" Shuri pursed her lips dramatically, her head tilting to one side with fake sympathy.