mental link, v important questions;

[narcissithstic]

(Tell me, have any of you spoken to Cathaway within the last two months.)

[The newer Hosts are the most likely suspects, but perhaps through the link—

Perhaps he feels nothing not because of distance, but because she's chosen to keep him locked out. The possibility is a nagging itch at the base of his skull; he'd rather know for certain.]

Comments

[greentech]

( Right. Well, I met her, I'm pretty sure. Why do you want to know? )

[narcissithstic]

(I want to know how the separation's affected her.) [Or more specifically, her views on him.] (Our first mission lasted a few weeks, this one...has exceeded that. Easily.)

[greentech]

( She didn't seem that broken up about it. )

[narcissithstic]

(She's existed for a long time with no one but the Prince at her side. It isn't surprising.)

[Still, if there's anyone Ren hates, it's that guy.]

(The Nest was empty excluding the two of them when I connected to my symbiote; I don't know how many years had passed before that point.

Or hundreds of years.)

[greentech]

[ Whoa, slow down Kyle. ]

( You think they were alone on that thing for hundreds of years? )

[ That sounds horrible. ]

[narcissithstic]

(I think it's possible.

The Station felt abandoned. Quiet, but not dead.

She seemed relieve to find life rekindling— and devastated each time another Host is lost.)

[greentech]

( Great. I'm going to stuck here for hundreds of years. And probably go crazy. )

[ Focus up, Pidge. ]

[narcissithstic]

[Why is Cathaway always the benchmark for perceived (unwanted) futures, Ren wonders.]

(Unless your species lives that long, no. You won't.

And Prince is her broodmate. For all his stupidity and arrogance, he remains a bastion within himself, independent of the Nest or us. You're not doomed to anything.)

[greentech]

( I don't know. Maybe the symbiote gives us an enhanced life-span or something!

I don't really care what they do, anyway. Why do you care so much about Cathaway? )

[narcissithstic]

[It'd be nice if it did, he imagines (less nice in some instances, like say, Nathaniel). Still, there were legends— most of them lost to time, whispered only in dark corners of the universe— that promised the Force was capable of something similar.

Perhaps if he's fated for it, and continues to press his abilities... ]

(Don't you care about her?)

[A question for a question: maybe he's learning from Mara Jade.]

[greentech]

( Why should I? )

[ OK, she does kind of care, but she's also... angry. That definitely leaks out. There's fear and anger and frustration about far too many things. ]

[narcissithstic]

(Because she cared enough to save you.) [From the darkness that would have swallowed them all whole, from a life of blindness, from the limits of a single galaxy destined to fail.]

(Alone, what hunted you would have ended you. Easily.)

[greentech]

( Because she took me away from the people I cared about! I had people to find! )

[narcissithstic]

(They would have died if you found them—!!)

[It's as sharp as a knife; unyielding, if only to make his point.]

(You would have been their death sentence.)

[greentech]

( You don't know that! )

[ She pushes back with her anger and frustration, trying to pour it down their link. ]

sport broadcaster voice: this is officially Kylo Ren's fourth screaming match with a teenager—

[narcissithstic]

(Oh but I do. I've seen it. -Felt it-.)

[Resisting the wellspring of her rage and denial isn't easy: for a moment, just up until the edge where his every instinct presses him to share that knowledge freely (cruelly), his mind leans into it— and then stops. Against every urge, he knows better than to break a child, not unless it's for the Nest's benefit.

Times have changed.]

(None of us came here willingly - that doesn't make this imprisonment.

But if you're unwilling to stay, tell her. Accept nothing else. She'll send you back.)

he's on a roll, bob

[greentech]

( She said going back was impossible! )

[ She refuses to believe that going back is dooming herself or her friends. She'll find a way. Her team will find a way. It's what they do. ]

( What do you know, anyway? )

[narcissithstic]

(Currently.

Until the threat of our enemies is put to rest, going back would only draw them to you - and the people you care about. Cathaway was trying to protect you from your own stubbornness, I assume.)

[But they travel through the multiverse at will: to say it's impossible to visit the galaxies they'd once inhabited would be a lie, as far as he understands it.]

(What do you want to know about?)

[greentech]

[ UGH. She doesn't want to keep talking to him, but he's offering to answer questions. ]

( How long have you been here? )

[narcissithstic]

(From the beginning.) [So special, such snowflake.]

(I was one of the first hosts to be reborn on the station over four months ago.)

[greentech]

( Do you really think we're fighting a war against some nebulous enemy? )

[narcissithstic]

(I saw them. Knew their presence.

Still, if what I felt was true, we're outnumbered: I somehow wonder if our efforts at their best - and worse - equate to a war.)

[greentech]

( I was attacked before I came here, but- )

[ Ugh. She didn't think it would be a part of some huge alien conspiracy. ]

( So what do you think we should do? Just join in without questioning it? )

[narcissithstic]

( Survive. )

[Whatever steps are necessary to ensure it, whatever it takes to ensure their proven enemies aren't controlling their every move.]

( Everything else, you'll deal with along the way.)

[Whether she hates the Nest or comes to terms with it, whatever she might think of him or Cathaway - all of it is less important than guaranteeing they all continue to draw breath.]

[greentech]

( Don't worry, I plan on surviving. I've still got way too much to do to let this stop me. )

[ She's definitely determined. She's still not that happy about what's going on around her, but she's also not super hostile. ]

( You seem to have thrown yourself right into. Any reason for that? )