BATHING RIGHTS

Still concussed from recent fighting, Mara decides she has earned one thing: a hot bath. Grievance disagrees. Every thermal route stays locked while the medical wall wakes instead, and Mara repeatedly tries to prove she is “fine” only for the living floor to correct her balance. She grudgingly submits to a check, earns only a slight temperature increase, then sits in the still-cold bath out of pure spite. Her verdict—“You are a judgmental bathtub.”—gets one tiny amber pulse and no warmer water. Relationship insight: Grievance is beginning to enforce bodily boundaries Mara refuses to admit she needs, turning care into obstruction because that is the language she actually respects.