A whole cow! Wow, should I be worried about competition, Greyling?

As I'm sure Obsidian can tell you, I've got a large appetite myself.

[I CAUGHT THAT LOOK I WONDER IF YOU'LL CATCH MY ENTENDRE :D]

No, we've never met. I'd have remembered her face by now. She's ... definitely after my time.

But - [leaning forward, letting the rune on her sword show visible, over her shoulder] - I know what she is. You could almost say "like I know myself"?

[to Greyling, more obviously] Hah, I wonder how many generations after mine you are.

Hahahaha! No, no.

She's not a yoma. Not yet. She's a claymore. See that hair and eyes? It's a dead giveaway. I wasn't sure, of course - but when she recognized my blade, I knew I was right.

[a shrug, then a lean back against the sword] If you want to get technical about it, if we were back home, she'd probably try to kill me. We're not enemies, not in the slightest - it's just business. It's her job, and it used to be mine. That's what the Organization does, you see? They sew up little bits of monster inside a body, then they let that little monster fight the bigger ones.

And that little monster, well - back home, outside of a few exceptions, she either dies, or she grows up to be someone like me.

[looking right at Greyling when she says this last part:]

But she's not back home anymore. I wonder if that will change anything for her.

I hope not! Personally, I'm a little tired of watching my juniors die.

In Aather, I've taken the name Sword, for obvious reasons. But in our homeland I'm called Riful, the Abyssal of the West.

... have you remembered the ranking system yet?

Oh, you remember that much. Well! When I worked for the organization, which was a very long time ago, I earned the rank of "first".

And that's what they call us, you see. The highest-ranked claymores who don't stay claymores. They call us the "Abyssal Ones".

Well ... we've never met, so giving you any sort of time frame that matches up with my perspective wouldn't mean very much, would it?

But outside of the male generation ... let's just say I'm the first in more than just the ranking sense of that number!

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I like to be helpful to my juniors! [narrative aside: ha ha haaaaaaaa]

Anyway, since you called, I did have a question for Obsidian I'd meant to ask. How's Clare?

[blinks, then blinks again, but slower, and ... settles back against her sword, posture loosening. she'd considered the possibility, of course, but she wasn't, actually, expecting recognition -]

Oh my. Well, isn't that interesting.

Clare's the name I gave my cat. She reminded me of someone I knew from home, you see.

She was a claymore, like you.