She hunched over the desk and scribbled very intently about something that looked VERY scientific. There was a glow board and a bunch of research holos strewn all over. It was unusual for her to have such a mess but there was something very important she needed to figure out.
She almost had the answer... But not quite. Was she still human?
Still Cybelle?
“What’s all this then?” Brandyn said, seeming to have come out of nowhere. He started to make his way across the room with a cup of tenembrine tea in his hand.
“For you?” He said, holding out the drink, while looking down at the desk.
She looked...Startled. Which, was also odd. Cybelle could usually feel him from miles away let alone in the next room. She closed the book she was writing in and turned towards him to accept the tea.
Passively she'd wanted exactly that but hadn't taken the time to make it. “Oh, nothing just...Research.”
Her brow furrowed.
“Would you still love me if I was a worm?”
Brandyn seemed unconvinced, and his head tilted in a manner denoting curiosity. “Research…huh?”
He shook his head a little, slowly his presence in the Force began to unmask. His intent to sneak up on Cybelle seemed to have not proven to be as delightful as he intended.
“Depends when you became a worm?” He said with a shrug, all but ignoring the oddity of the question, “were you always a worm? Did Briana’s stare turn you into one? What’s the deal?”
“Yes - You know those academic projects we always put off..”
He would likely be very confused as to why she was looking into the makings of abominations, sithspawn, but academic notions always called the more studious of their Order. Understanding was half the battle.
His presence in the Force bloomed and she reflexively smiled at the feeling while taking a sip of tea. “Bri loves me she wouldn't do that to me... Maybe you... Not me. If someone turned me into a worm tomorrow... Would you?”
He half frowned, one eyebrow dipping lower than the other. “What is this about? Some strange intellectual exercise?” He said, while resting himself against the wall, “I mean…I guess…I don’t know. You would be a worm. It would be…different. Would you expect me to keep loving worm you? I mean…I would take care of worm you…see no harm was done to you…try to find a way to reverse it…but…I wouldn’t kiss worm you…”
He laughed. What was this conversation?
Cybelle laughed softly and almost snorted into her tea while the meaning flew right over his head. “Yes - It's an exercise.... It's a look at love from all angles.”
She shrugged her shoulders and turned around to look at her books again. “I would love you that's all I'm saying...”
“But I wouldn’t want you too…Cybelle…if I was a worm…I would have no feelings to hurt. You would be chaining yourself to a love that had passed away when I did…the brain of a worm cannot hold the complexity of any sentient life…it would be unfair of me to expect you to love me if I became a worm. So no…I refuse to let you…put me in the garden where worm’s belong,” he said, surprising himself with the passion behind the words.
"Nope.”
The simple reply was coupled with a turn of her page. It might have been an easy rationalization but it wouldn't change how she felt on the inside... Even if he wasn't aware of it. Regardless, it wasn't actually about being a worm... But Cybelle was having a little too much fun to tell him that. “Well...I might put you in a garden so you can live well. But, that's all.”
His eyebrows rose with each second beyond the nope, until she finally spoke again. “Thank you! Anything less would be inhumane…but I would expect you to fall in love with someone else…don’t wait for my little worm body to die.”
A smug expression crossed his face, as he relished having turned the question around on her successfully. Pushing off the wall, he tried to not make it obvious that he was trying to catch a glimpse of what she was reading. It wasn’t exactly polite to read over one’s shoulders.
“Nope.”
Love someone else? Surely, he was going a little mad. It had taken Cybelle a long time to come to terms with her feelings for him... That left no room or space for even the thought of anyone else. “I'd rather spend my days remembering good times.”
She turned the page again while using her fingertip to mark the passage. “Worm me would want to know if you would love me... Even if I didn't look like me. Even if I was awful. Would you love me?”
He was curious... But she'd turned to a section that was less glaring on purpose. Would he still love her.... If she was really a monster?
“I wouldn’t categorize a worm as awful. Ugly. Sure. But not awful,” he said, avoiding the question.
Cybelle sighed... No. Of course not. What Jedi could ever love a beast that went against the entirety of their nature? So... She had to keep working to find out the truth... Was she herself? Or something else? “Okay, then.”
He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. She seemed upset about his non-answer. Did it really mean that much to her? He had probably read that wrong. “You are not a worm. You are my everything. I don’t need a thought experiment to know I love you...all of you…”
He turned to walk out of the room, but threw a glance back at Cybelle. “If you need me, I will be in the garden visiting my ex-girlfriend.”
But what if she was eomething worse, much worse, than a worm. His attention mollified her momentarily and she leaned into him until he pulled away. It was better if he wasn't here for this...
But she did wing a stack of old scrolls in his direction on reflex. “Jerk!”
But... He was her jerk and she smiled nonetheless.
