Psyche

[Eugen Aker]

Following events at a certain Amaran zoo, Jyoti had calmed down considerably and began to reflect. Yuroic and Scherezade definitely needed help, their dysfunction clear as day.

She decided that Allyson was the best person to talk to Yuroic, while she would tackle Scherezade herself as a neutral third party. A chat with Scherezade had always been on her mind since she had to sith through Josh monologuing about the woman at length. A Dark Sider so important to him - and thus influential - was worth investigating by the Shadow.

When calling for the meeting, she kept things simple, inviting Scherezade to one of the cabins aboard her sleek Nubian barge still at the intergalactic spaceport of Amar.

Before they spoke, she took some time to fix herself a pot of tea and even offered up a cup to Scherezade at the small round table, but it was just a formality. The Sith seemed pretty contents of her waterskin. The smell of alcohol was even stronger now in a closed space, but the Echani endured with a serene expression, countering the odors with aerosols of deodorizers and absorbents excreted from her pores, possessing the flowery fragrance of lavender. It had started out as nothing but pure sweat and protein, but with the expert application of telekinesis on her part, the molecules could be refashioned to her liking.

She was still mixing her drink as she finally began to spoke, using the activity as a form of active meditation to remain composed.

"Firstly, I want to say thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I know things between us became tense at one point, but I'm glad we were able to find a peaceful resolution."

Tense was an understatement. Both women were warriors and had been primed to strike each other if Josh hadn't returned in the end to de-escalate the situation by removing Jason.

She stopped mixing, finally meeting Scherezade in the eye. "I think it's pretty obvious that something is troubling you, and I'd like to help if you would allow me. I'd like to think the Silver Order can offer you much more than just martial support as an ally."

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade had no clue what she was doing there. It seemed to be the usual melody for her these days. She rarely had a clue why she was anywhere unless she was on a CIS sanctioned mission, and even then, she usually wasn't sure why she was there at all. There were a plethora of reasons for this to be the reason, and surprisingly enough, today at the zoo had not been about the usual mot dominating reason. No, instead of thinking about the man she had loved but had chosen her sister, and the sister she had loved but had chosen the man she loved over her, Scherezade's mind, while not occupied with trying to calm a child down, had been entirely focused on her parents.

She didn't know why she hadn't left the planet shortly after the horrible and catastrophic meeting at the zoo had been concluded. Well no, that wasn't entirely true. This time she did know. She'd gone back to her ship and emptied several bottles into her body, lost consciousness, and when she opened her eyes again, it was two hours later and there was an invitation from the Jedi Grandmaster person to come meet her. Everything inside Scherezade had screamed that she was supposed to decline, that this was a bad idea. But at the same time, she didn't want to cause a diplomatic clustercrack and cause her standing within the CIS to become even shakier.

Not that it matters, a little voice whispered in the back of her mind, there was a diplomatic clustercrack when that Jedi tried to kill you, and here we are more than a month later and no one bothered to do anything about it. No one cares.

Scherezade sighed, took a quick shower, downed another half of a bottle, refilled her water-skin, and managed to arrive more or less on time. The shower hadn't really made her look better. She was wearing another pair of nondescript jeans and t-shirt, her combat boots still strapped to her legs. She often felt these days that no amount of scrubbing would ever make her feel human again. Her skin had taken on a sickly taint in these weeks, the result of no sleeping and of not eating properly. Bags decorated the skin beneath her eyes, which despite it all, still shone brightly most of the time. But whatever the genetic lottery she had won in terms of looks, her actions since breaking out of the Darkness were working hard to hide it and conceal it. The few times she'd looked in a mirror, she saw a young dead woman, which was more or less how she felt.

And here she was now, sitting in the Jedi Grandmaster person's cabin. The woman was having tea, but Scherezade declined. She hugged herself in her chair, her body language screaming her discomfort out. She wasn't a social event person. She didn't know how to work like a politician. Even before she had broken, her training on that front had been lacking. She was the person you called when you needed to stab and kill stuff, or maybe contaminate the water with laxatives. The other stuff... There were people better suited for it. Everyone else, more or less.

But why was she here? Had she really caused a political dissent with her miserable attempt to calm Jason down at the zoo? Was there something else going on? Was the Confederacy kicking her out and offering her to the Jedi instead? She didn't know. Or at least, she didn't know until Jyoti started to talk.

At first, Scherezade said nothing. Tense was indeed an understatement, but she really didn't know how to reply to that. Her peaceful resolution had been to leave. Usually she got ostracized for such things.

And then came the part about helping.

Scherezade blinked several times, trying to collect her thoughts. Why would someone who was a perfect stranger wanna help her? What was her idea of help, anyway? Was she going to try to convert her to Jedi'ism? She took another swig from her bottle before answering. Because the truth was, it didn't matter what the woman's end game was, or what she was after. The truth was too simply for the reasons behind it to matter.

"You can't help me," the Sithling finally said.


[member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Right from the get go, Scherezade made it apparent that the rehabilitation process was going to be difficult, but she had expected no less from the Acolyte. For the Echani, it was a small victory that she had even gotten to this point with the woman, and then didn't see her immediately bolt.

She took Scherezade's words not as a rejection, but as an invitation. A challenge, one that she couldn't help but rise up to meet. She was the master used to dealing with difficult characters as students - and enjoyed doing so - the Sith reminding her very much of them.

"You're right, I can't help you."

Jyoti took a sip of her tea, then smiled as she set the mug bad down on the saucer.

"Not like this." She gave Scherezade the once over. She looked a little better but still resembled a ghoul, but under her sickly pallor, Jyoti could see what was once a pretty woman. "Josh has told me a little bit about your predicament with the sleep disorder and malnutrition, and that's put your recent actions into perspective. I can forgive you what happened then. I may have just snapped in your position, so kudos to keeping yourself mostly in check."

At this point, she actually felt sympathetic to Scherezade and was actually a bit irked with Josh when he knew the Sith could have shown up being dysfunctional just like did at the petting exhibit. She could appreciate his sentiment for doing so, but she just wasn't ready for all that yet.

"To really be able to tackle the real issues plaguing you, first we have to get you some relief. Fortunately, we possess the means. We have eugeroics available in the medlab. Pilots and soldiers within Antarian Rangers use them while out in the field, it allows them to operate at peak mental conditions for weeks at a time, even if they're only getting 2 or 4 hours of sleep a day. I've seen people on these go a whole week without sleep and they report feeling like a million credits all the while. As long the dosages are kept in check, there isn't any real drawback to using them."

"As for us Jedi, we have meditation techniques that we can use to repair our bodies and organize our thoughts, almost as good as sleeping."

"There's several other I things I could do give or teach you, but I'd need something from you first." Her eyes shifted from the woman's face to her waterskin. "I'll need you to refrain from drinking. The alcohol would interfere with the treatments."

She stopped there and braced herself for a response, half expecting Scherezade to be suspicious about her offer. Jyoti knew what was best for the woman from experience, but the struggle was getting her to go along with the plan.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Josh had... Josh had told her, calling it a sleep disorder and malnutrition. The rage flickered over the Sithling's facial features, too easy to see, too easy to taste. Her face always betrayed her emotions, she had never learned how to hide them. Once this meeting was over, she was going to scalp Josh. He was taking way too many liberties with telling people about her, just as he had when he'd spoken to Katrine. She'd accused him of betrayal then and he had denied that it had been that. And now they were here again. If he was not going to learn what private meant, she was going to have to be the one to leave.

Jyoti was trying to compliment her for not snapping. Scherezade was not really impressed. She might not had snapped at the zoo, but she was close enough to it for it to count. And what was worse, considering what she had done to the porg, though she didn't really care about the life of one porg, she might have accidentally hurt Jason. Angry or not at Josh, she would not have been able to forgive herself for it if something had happened to that child because of her. But anyway, she didn't need the Jedi Grand Poobah's forgiveness over what had happened. It wasn't hers to forgive it.

Eugeroics. She almost asked what that meant, but instead she searched her grandmother's memories instead, looking for the big words. Her grandmother had been... Despite all her faults and her taste for killing family members in recent centuries, a well educated woman. And there the word was, along with its meaning. For some reason, Jyoti wanted to make Scherezade... Sharper? She didn't understand why. What was the woman getting out of it? But, that help came with a price.

"I don't know exactly what Josh did or did not tell you," came the reply, accompanied by a near cruel smile. It was nice to know her muscles could still stretch that way, "but I'm not looking for a clear head. I don't need a clear head. I drink because it slows me down. When I don't have the liquor, I think too fast, too clearly. I could terrify you and the rest of the Jedi with what I can do when I'm sober. And I have no intention of sobering up. Not as long as..."

No, Josh had probably not told her about why she was drinking.

"Until some things end first," she finally chose her words carefully, "thinking clearly and strongly is a hindrance right now. I don't want to do it. I'll find ways to continue not sleeping without the help of medicinal drugs if that's what it takes."

But that wasn't all.

"What do you get out of helping a Sithling?" she asked. Normally, it would've been her first question. But hey... The girl was drunk, "why would a Jedi leader ever want to grant a Sith's desires, even if she has the wrong inkling about what those are?"

[member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

As it turned out, Scherezade wasn't necessarily suffering from some kind of disorder. She was consciously choosing to keep herself awake and suffer through the consequences.

What had her so disturbed her so into resorting to such desperate measures.?

Curious, she decided to back off from the offers of treatment for the moment, wanting to get a better idea of the true nature of the problems plaguing the woman.

"Why do I want to help? Well, that's just what Jedi do. That's what we're supposed to do, anyhow. At the core of our values, we want to leave the galaxy a better place than we found it. When I look at you, I don't just see a Sith, but another person in pain, and I want to bring comfort. If there is any expectation I have with you, it's that perhaps you reciprocate that kindness onto others."

"I'm under no illusions about what you are as a Sith, but through it all, I see something redeeming. You have a heart, you care. Otherwise, you wouldn't have stood up to me earlier in defense of Jason. You probably wouldn't have even come to the Zoo in the first place. You certainly wouldn't be drinking yourself into a haze right now. I see that in you the same as Josh, so I figure it's worth a shot offering a hand."

She took a small pause, taking a sip of tea before asking the big question. "If I may ask, what's the real reason behind all the drinking and the lack of sleep?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

So she wanted to help because she saw a person in pain. Scherezade openly scoffed at that. She didn't believe in that sort of kindness. Almost everyone in the galaxy was in pain, but she was the one that was sitting here right now, talking to the Jedi Grandmaster person, not others. She was sure that with a little touch of the Force, Jyoti would have been able to pick up at least another dozen people from the zoo who were in pain as well, but she hadn't. Instead it was Scherezade who was sitting here, being completely out of place, being told about things... No, she didn't think Jyoti was lying when she said that. But she did think her intentions and care were... Perhaps the result of a lot of self deceiving.

"I have a stupid heart," she finally replied, "if it had come down to an actual fight, if Josh hadn't interfered, you would have been able to easily kill me. Just like that other Jedi did a while ago."

She still remembered her meeting with Kamon Vondiranach. She still remembered how terrified she had been. None of her actions had warranted an execution, but he could not be reasoned with. He'd found her eating lunch and decided that for being a Darksider, and a deWinter, she deserved death. He had stabbed her in the heart and the gut with his lightsabers, and by all rights, she should have died. Instead, she was saved by the two people, the only two people, that she had loved, only to wake up a week later to learn that while she'd been fighting for her life, they had chosen, loved, claimed. They had betrayed her. They had brought her back just to kill her soul.

"I told you why I drink," Scherezade answered that last question, "it takes the edge off. It means I don't have to think or feel as clearly."

Then there was... The sleep. No, the sleep had nothing to do with that. She would have spent her days sleeping, experiencing nocturnal dreams as others did, if she could. Shut her mind off, shut life off, for long stretches at a time. But she couldn't.

"Sleep is dangerous," she finally sighed, "there is a Darkness that tries to claim me. When I'm asleep, I'm at my most vulnerable state to it. I've spent twice in that Darkness already; once for five centuries, and the second and recent time... It was a week in the real world, but I thought it had been years. And the second time was much, much worse..."

Why was she telling her all that? She didn't know. It was more than she'd told Josh, if she compared time talking vs time talking. But what she had said... Well. It wasn't even the tip of the ice cap yet. Scherezade drank from her bottle again.

[member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Jyoti shook her head as Scherezade recounted her experience of being previously assaulted by a Jedi. If she probed, she bet a hundred credits it had been a Jedi from the GA. Something similar happened to the another Dark Sider she was working, Elizah. Publicly she may have expressed her condolences for the fall of the GA, but privately she felt it wasn't all bad that their brand of violent extremism had been neutered. Jedi weren't supposed to be crusaders or bagmen. It was just that sort of behavior that helped fuel and endless cycle of violent between camps of Light and Dark Siders. She was sick of it. That's why the SJO existed today, as a rejection of that philosophy.

She found Scherezade's mention said Jedi and killing odd, but she waved it off as a slip of the tongue.

"Oh goodness...I wouldn't have killed you. At the end you may have had a throbbing headache and a sore arse at worst. I'm Echani, we're all pretty good with our hands."

Indulging in a bit of black humor, she gave Scherezade a smirk as she gave her the spirit fingers with one hand. Then another sip of her tea.

In a surprise, the Sith did reveal what was troubling her. An entity she referred to simply as the 'Darkness'. The Shadow wasn't familiar with this particular entity, but the description reminded her of possession.

However the real revelation was Scherezade's age. If she were to be believed then that meant she was centuries old. At least predating the Dark Ages. Yet, underneath the bags and sickly looking skin, she had such a youthful appearance. This woman was much more than she appeared to be.

And here she thought Josh had been the cradle robber.

"Well you're in luck. Paranormal activity is my speciality. Wraiths. Sith Spirits. Trandemensional demons. You see a lot as a Shadow."

Little did the Sith know that she was sitting before a ghost, an avatar of a woman long dead. Jyoti definitely had more experience with these matters than she initially let on.

"So, what exactly is the nature of the Darkness that haunts you?"

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wouldn't have killed her, just humiliated her. Scherezade wasn't sure what was worse when there was a crowd of onlookers involved. Sure, the zoo visitors had been frozen in time, but there were more than enough other people, mostly from the Silvers, who'd probably been watching with interest.

Jyoti said Scherezade was in luck? Paranormal activity? The Sithling shook her head. There was nothing paranormal about it, it was about as paranormal as using the Force was. But she also mentioned a word...

"What's a Shadow?" the Sithling asked. She hadn't heard the term used that way before, and she guessed that Jyoti didn't mean actual shadows like when you got when you stood in front of the light and made bunnies against the wall.

And what was the nature of the Darkness anyway? To that, she had no answer to give her, so she just shrugged. "I don't know what its nature is," she answered truthfully, "just what it did to me. What it keeps trying to do to me. I don't know why, or how, or any of the rest of the stuff."

She sighed, taking another drink from her bottle. "Some things are worse than death."

Like the Darkness. Like Gerwald and Katrine's betrayal. Like... Like her current state. Like too damn many things.

[member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

"A Shadow? It's short for a Silver Shadow. We exist as a corps of elite agents and investigators within the Silver Order, looking into everything from organized crime to Eldritch horrors. I suppose you could say we are the eyes and ears of the SJO."

There was much more to the clandestine organization, but that's about all she trusted to tell Scherezade. Not even most Jedi within the Silver Order was aware of all the responsibilities of the Shadows.

On the topic of the Darkness, Scherezade didn't really seem to know what it is. Jyoti was skeptical, but for now, she would accept the Sith's claim at face value to keep the questioning going. Thus far, she felt like she was doing much better than expected.

"Alright, that's a start though. I take it you beat it back with some form of Mentalism? What does it want from you now?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"What's Mentalism?" came the next question. She'd heard the answer about the Shadow, ad realized it was just another one of the Silver groups. The Confederacy had its own groups, after all, so why woudldn't the Jedi? Scherezade herself had been... Had sort of been part of the Mandragora. The Witches of Ryloth. But that was no longer the case, and even while there, even despite being claimed by the spirits like everyone else, she'd been just barely tolerated by anyone aside for the Nightmother. And then the Nightmother betrayed her.

Jyoti asked what the Darkness wanted from her now.

Scherezade shrugged.

"It wants me," she answered, "I don't know why. Not just parts. It wants all of me. It wants to keep me inside it forever. Or at least that's what I think. It never actually said that.

The first time I was there... It was my grandmother who released me. But she was also the one who put me there. I was locked in a prison for five hundred years, maybe more, and there was just Darkness there. No visions, no nothing, just the inky blackness of the surrounding, and the aware, the very aware, passing of time.

The second time... I managed to pull a few parts of the Darkness and create a sword. Called it the Sword of Darkness, and the irony's not lost on me. I broke free when I stabbed myself in the heart with it, but I still have it, and it's not keeping me safe. I almost killed someone with it."

Without waiting for a reply, Scherezade pulled one of her knives out from beneath her shirt. She was always armed to the teeth, carrying at least a dozen Czerka knives with her, and often a gun that could shoot the Glitter Bullets she made as well.

She held the knife in her right hand and summoned her sword.

Instantly, black smoke rose as the little Czerka knife morphed into the Sword of Darkness. It was a longsword, suited for one armed battle, and its hilt was as black as she had described the Darkness to be. It seemed to pulse, holding a life of its own.

She'd been terrified the first times she'd summoned it without meaning to. Now... She knew she was never going to use it anyway.

Scherezade let the sword drop on the table, and the moment it was no longer in contact with her skin, it became just a Czerka knife again, without as much as a hint to what it had been a moment before.

"So how much have you seen of things like this, Shadow lady?"


[member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Jyoti frowned at her response, not sure what to find more disturbing. That she had apparently been trapped alone to be tortured by what sounded like sensory deprivation for centuries, or that a family member had been the one to put her there in the first place.

The Sith were always so loving to their kin.

Scherezade's behavior made a lot more sense now. No one could come out of the other side of an ordeal like like she described without serious trauma. All things considered, she seemed more lucid than she should be, which spoke to a high degree of constitution. In an odd way, the Echani was impressed that Scherezade had managed to hold herself together this long.

She was still skeptical about all of it, however, all until the Sith finally showed her some of this Darkness.

In a small display of power, she summoned it into reality, projecting it onto a blade she had. Reflex made Jyoti's steely muscles coil under her robes at the formation of the weapon, and the vile aura that it radiated, but on the surface, she remained composed.

Then as soon as it had appeared, the Darkness was gone as soon as Scherezade lost contact with the knife, the shadowy wisps receding back to their dark hole somewhere.

At this point, Jyoti took her more seriously. Skilled in manipulating the Cosmic Force, she could perceive the alien quality of the black stuff, something that had no business existing within their plane of existence.

"It's Jyoti," she told the mocking woman. "and I don't know, you tell me."

Without warning, the ends of a dozen swords appeared seemingly out of nowhere above their heads, their ends fading in a haze - the terminating point between reality and the immaterium. It wasn't quite the same thing as Scherezade had done, the swords completely inanimate, but it showed that she did indeed had such experience with such matters.

The blades receded back to their pocket dimension, and the fabric of space-time returned to normal. Her silvery eyes linger on the blade that Sherezade had just dropped earlier, then back on those dulled eyes of the exhausted Sith.

"If you can control the Darkness to some degree now, then that means that there is the possibility of mastery. Rather than allow this thing to consume you, you take it on your own terms and make it yours."

She wasn't sure if anyone had ever suggested such a route, but it seemed like the best route at the moment. If she couldn't rid herself of the Darkness, then she could learn to control it to her benefit.

"If you want to learn to control it instead of letting it run you, then I could help you. Would you allow me to touch the Darkness as you summon it again?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Jyoti. So they were on first name basis. No more Shadow Lady, no more Grandmaster Jedi Poobah, or any of the other colorful descriptions that could fit.

She looked at her, trying to gauge what her reaction was. But Scherezade rarely knew how to read people. The only person she'd been able to read was... Never mind. And anyway, she hadn't been able to read his facial expressions either. She just thought she had, and it had all been a big stupid lie anyway.

Instead she just said and did nothing, kept her gaze on Jyoti, who suddenly caused a dozen swords to appear out of thin air. Scherezade blinked and stared, wanting to touch one, but they were gone before she had a chance to move her arm.

With more willpower than she thought she had at the moment, she forced her gaze back to the woman. Jyoti said... She had some control over the Darkness? No, that sounded wrong. Scherezade was powerless against it. Her only way to protect herself from it these days was to not almost die in battle, and to not sleep. She hadn't even wanted the Sword of Darkness to make it back through with her, it just had. That first time she summoned it, she'd thought she was in the Darkness still. The other times... They had been accidents. There was no matter of control at play here.

So how could she possibly make it hers? There was nothing she'd ever had that as truly hers. From the moment she had broken out of the pebble, everything was a matter of hand me downs, of charity, of things other people had little to no use for so she was the one that ended up with them. She couldn't make the Darkness her own just as she couldn't make... Well, anything, her own.

All she could do was shake her head.

And then Jyorti asked to touch the Sword of Darkness.

Scherezade stared stupidly at her. Was the woman serious?! "You realize that if I say yes and something bad happens to you, I'm going to have the entire Silver Order on my head, right?" she asked, "I don't even know what that stupid sword can do outside of the Darkness. I haven't as much as nicked Ka-," she coughed. No. This was not the time for it, "I've never as much as even nicked anyone with it. For all I know touching the blade would infect you with this or other Darkside virus and then not even Confederacy space would be safe to me. Not that it's overly safe at present, but still..."


[member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Reading Scherezade's action, it appeared that she hadn't really considered that she could master this Darkness entity. However, if she could do that much with weapon imbuement, then it was a sign that control was possible.

Unsurprisingly, she was quite hesitant about sharing her power with Jyoti when she didn't even understand it herself, but the Echani remained undeterred.

"Scherezade, I'm a Shadow. Much of our work involves studying Dark Side artifacts. It's a risk, but one I'm willing to take to better understand your affliction. You have my word that nothing will happen if I get hurt - that's all on me. Again, part of what I do every day."

She held out a hand, beckoning the Sith to summon the Darkness once more.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Jyoti was trying to shift the responsibility, saying that it wouldn't be on Scherezade if something happened. The Sithling shook her head again.

"There are a lot of things you're not considering, Shadow Lady," she said, squinting her eyes. Force, she was tired, "for instance, what if you touch it and it gobbles you up, becomes stronger, and then whatever defenses I have at my disposal against the Darkness are no longer enough?"

Frankly, it was a concern she'd made up on the spot. It didn't mean it couldn't happen though.

Sighing, Scherezade removed the Czerka knife from the table and put it back underneath her shirt, where it belonged.

"For all I know if we both touch it at the same tie, it could transfer us both into the Darkness," she added, "because you can't touch it alone. If I don't have my hand on it, whatever it was I was holding just returns to being whatever it was I was holding beforehand."

[member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Scherezade brought up more concerns, but Jyoti just shrugged.

"I have considered the risk, Miss deWinter. Maybe I do get hurt. Maybe I am consumed. However, there's nothing gained without risk. Right now, all we have to go on is what you're telling me, and it's not much."

She didn't go as far as to say it out loud as to trigger her, but she didn't find the girl to be much of a reliable source being clearly disturbed by this Darkness and other issues Josh had hinted at in previous conversations regarding the Sith. Scherezade really shouldn't have been walking around at this point, better sealed away in stasis where she couldn't hurt anyone. She was a ticking time bomb.

"If you're not comfortable sharing with me now, then we can do it in a proper lab environment with all the right quarantine protocols in place. There just has to be something done. Have you looked at yourself? You're falling apart, and on your current track, it won't be long before the things you're trying to hold back overtake you. This is no time for caution."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Not telling her much? Scherezade had told her everything she knew, and that was above and beyond what most people got. It wasn't her fault she didn't know more about it, wasn't willing to venture back into the Darkness to learn more. She'd been in the Darkness twice (that she remembered, as the third time had been erased from her memories without a trace), and the second time was so much worse. What would it happen if she went in again? How much more space did she have to break? It wasn't something she wanted to find out.

And now Jyoti was talking about testing it in a lab environment. The sharp change in Scherezade's body language was easy to see as she tensed up. The idea of going into a lab was even worse. She wasn't a lab rat. She didn't want to be plugged into things and be experienced on. It was almost like going into the Darkness, but with brighter lights and being treated like some testing rodent. She didn't like that idea at all.

"Falling apart?" she scoffed, taking another swig from her bottle, "I'm not falling apart, Jyorti. I'm already broken. It happened over a month ago and there's no going back from that."


[member="Jyoti Nooran"]