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

[unsea]

( They may, in time. ) [ He has his doubts. Approaching either of them directly might be advisable, if one wants answers.

-- he'd pick Carata's presence over Nirad, though. ] ( I don't recall there being a time limit for our operation. We may be here longer yet. )

[ do not want. ]

[narcissithstic]

(I don't intend to let inaction shackle me to this world the way it's already done to them.)

[A sentiment he imagines you already predicted and understand, darkbro.]

(And I don't intend to be kept from her.)

[unsea]

( Nor do I, I assure you. ) [ Sharply. Laying it between them in a hushed whisper. This entire matter has gone on long enough, he feels.

He appreciates Ren's - precision, though. ]

( What is it you need from her, pobratím? What weight does her absence hold? )

[narcissithstic]

[If the conversation was with anyone else, he might not confess so openly. And yet...]

(All of it.

She -is- the Nest. Its power, its sight, its will. Without her, we're blind, deaf to every threat that surrounds us.)

[And yet if they work as one, they might somehow counter it, that crippling disadvantage.]

[unsea]

[ She is most certainly not the be-all, end-all. This, he finds, is where the two of them differ. It's not something he argues. To each their own hunger--

( --but, she's definitely blind and deaf to their actions right now, isn't she? ) ]

( You sell yourself short, Ren. )

[narcissithstic]

[Not as much as you might think, Darkling.

Still, the visions Cathaway had shared with Ren feel too valuable to share just yet— particularly not after Mara Jade violently rejected his gift of insight. Of glory.]

(Is that what you think of me.)

[unsea]

( You know how I think of you. )

[ Pobratím. Blood-brother, bound by a something shared that no one else has. ]

( I like Cathaway, undoubtedly. She is clever, she watches over someone dear to me and she holds insight that I hope to learn of - and in the here and now, I prefer what's present. What could become of us: we who rally where others falter, do you think? )

[ Everyone could become greater, to be sure. ( None greater than him, he thinks. For he devours, and rises. ) ]

[narcissithstic]

[He sees you, Jake Sully.]

(I think...) [Sharp and searching, as if somewhere across the line his dark eyes are hunting hawkishly for a trail that's already been methodically covered. Without utilizing the Force, he finds nothing - but for all his tangible bristling, he has no (current) desire to turn that strength on his own shadow.

Not for the ghost of a doubt.]

(...that we're done discussing this.)

[The scraps of insight his brother wants, he'll have to earn: a fed wolf coveting his meal, he's too fearful to share it with another.]