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]

( 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? )

[narcissithstic]

(I can't go back to what I left behind.)

[The First Order in shambles, the Resistance clawing their way up from the rubble while the Senate chokes on the ashes of what it once was. Besides, Snoke was weaker than Cathaway; he had less to impart.

As he would have replaced his apprentice with the Scavenger, Ren does the same in turn.]

(But the Nest has power. The sooner it's utilized, the sooner we can put an end to those that hunt us - and use that strength to bring change when we return to our own galaxies.)

[greentech]

( I don't need the Nest's power, though. I already HAD it. )

[ Sort of. It's a complicated story. She just knows that she had a responsibility and a 'job' of her own, complete with a giant robot. Maybe the Nest does have power, but she didn't need it and she doesn't really think she does now, either. ]

[narcissithstic]

(It didn't save you before you were taken.)

[Offhandedly. Curiously, even.]

(You said you had people that needed you.)

[greentech]

(I do. What's it matter to you? )

[narcissithstic]

(Do you really think the strength you might find here wouldn't help them?)

[greentech]

( I know I'm not helping them by sitting around here. )

[narcissithstic]

(How young you are.)

[How unbearably impatient.

Was he ever so impulsive? Yes]

[greentech]

( What does that have to do with anything? )

[narcissithstic]

( Everything, if you don't see the benefit of what you stand to gain here. )

[Hux would be better suited to this conversation. Better suited to giving advice, guidance - Ren, on the other hand, knows only blunt sincerity.]

[greentech]

( I'm losing time is what I'm doing here. )