[@HereComesTheSnow]

[B]Teàrlag Cirsium - Armoury[/B]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9SEZCyHKK0]Doing one's best.[/url] When I was a wee quine back in Shade, you would never have heard those words leave my lips. I was content with just sitting in the middle of the class, taking things easy and avoiding all the struggle. I thought it would have been fine if I was just another C-list hero sacrificed to the hordes of hungry, murderous Grimm, and that any motivation would've just done bugger-all for my chances of surviving. A decoy for some other bugger who would've been more useful to the war effort. A sacrifice for the continued half-survival of this uncaring society.

And now, instead of barely graduating, I'm helping all these brats improve their chance at life.

I don't know why I even picked this bloody job. Maybe I was blootered when I took that course. Wow Teàrlag, you might say, you really changed a lot since you were some lass with a chip on her shoulder! You're a genuine contributor to this complex piece of societal machinery now! Don't be a dunderhead, I don't even know if what I'm teaching is going to even help in the long run. All these brats who vow to do their best, who expect that this façade I'm wearing can give them the knowledge they need to be good Hunters, to be heroes who'll vanquish all that seeks to destroy humanity.

An idealistic dream, but in the end, that's all it is. Some dream we tell ourselves will come true so we don't give up, so we can keep living on despite all these buggering Grimm wanting to drop us down a burn. We need the lie so we don't have to worry about all the pain just lying around the bend.

That's what we do.

It's not at all the truth.

I'm just another idjit pretending that everything will be fine. Pretending that my 'help' can contribute in anyway to making these brats more than just C-list sacrifices. That I can help them grow so that they'll survive and live a full life without needing to cry. That my advice has some meaning.

Idealistic crock, innit?

But I took the job by my own volition. I'm contractually obligated to give these brats everything they need.

So that the effort they put in "doing their best" actually bears fruit.

"[color=d8bfd8]Welcome to Dust Apps then, Luke,[/color]" I say with a smile, holding out a hand.

That they'll go out into the world and live.