004a. Thrashing

Patches and Incisor go Thrashing.

***"You wanna go thrash?"***

Patches and Incisor leave The Spark and head off into the night. Incisor admits she was surprised Patches chose tonight to go out with her, and that after the day she's had, most people would just want to "take a Xanax and pass out". Incisor also makes a point of telling Patches to stay out of her way that night. As the two walk, Patches tells her a bit about having gone through basic training for the Canadian navy, and about wanting to become more disciplined… and learning how to shoot a gun. She calls Incisor out on her odd taste in music, but the redcap shoots back with an example of beauty and violence together in her favourite movie, *A Clockwork Orange*.

Incisor and Patches arrive at Katacombes, a Montreal heavy metal club (although tonight is "goth night"). The industrial music is not to the liking of either: Incisor thinks it's too self-pitying and melancholy, while Patches prefers music with a beat she can work to. After the DJ finishes up, a young, inexperienced band hops on stage and proceeds to start playing some very loud, uninspired metal. When Patches rolls her eyes at the band, Incisor strides out into the crowd and proceeds to punch one of the men in the crowd, hard enough to send him stumbling back. She picks up another woman and throws her into a bouncer: in the melee, Incisor gets cracked in the jaw as she takes a bite out of someone's arm. As the police burst in, Patches drags the redcap out the back; Incisor refuses to leave right away, until the band steps out onto the patio. The frontman is Incisor's protégé, and she took it upon herself to stir up the crowd for them, but warns him that they'll have to do it themselves next time.

Patches takes Incisor down the street to the Belle Province, noting that her jaw is *probably* not broken. When questioned about her relationship to the band, Incisor just tells Patches that she's built a relationship with them over time, and to stay away from them for her Ravaging. Patches comes to realize that Incisor is Seelie, and try to negotiate their new relationship. When Incisor tells Patches that being a Seelie redcap comes with a host of difficult expectations, the nocker fires back that being Unseelie doesn't necessarily mean she lives up to the negative stereotypes either.

Incisor seems distressed and confused by Zistor's disappearance: "I wish I knew why he left". Although Patches considers Zistor to be a mentor of sorts, she also has no idea what would have driven him to run. Incisor is adamant, though, that Zistor isn't clean, and that Duke Granville is also acting suspiciously in not taking more interest in The Spark, being of House Fiona.

To take Incisor's mind off her injuries, Patches takes her to another bar, where the two mosh: Patches gets into a small fight, while Incisor terrifies someone into peeing their pants. When Patches asks afterwards whether Incisor would prefer for others to get closer to her, the redcap explains that the Dreaming made her the way she is. "I'm a product of dreams of hunger. Who are you?" Patches, confronted with a challenge to her identity, isn't sure it about it, but she does know that being thrown into an alliance with "a couple of straight edges" (Braum and Sophia) isn't her style. Incisor asks Patches to give them both a shot: Braum must have done something special in order to earn his title, and Sophia is incredible too. While Incisor admits that she and Sophia are diametrically opposed, she knows that they both have value in the world: "there isn't beauty only up where she is".

She cautions Patches to watch out for Sophia, though, as her meddling in Braum's head might seriously damage him. Patches tells Incisor that she wasn't an officer in the navy specifically because she didn't want to take responsibility for "some idiot who discharged his weapon". Why then, wonders Incisor, is she OK with taking responsibility for a dragon and a big, dumb oaf? Patches can only say that rescuing a dragon and potentially having it as an ally is a more interesting responsibility.

The two admit that the other has a very different outlook on life, but that neither is "so bad after all".