sometime after day 5

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Sam’s never really reached out to the Nest in general like this before, but at this point - well, he’s running out of options. The work he’s done on his mental walls has paid off, and nothing escapes his thick cloud layer except his words, and the soft hint of wind and feathers that flavors his mental link. ]

( Seems like we got a bit of down time, and I’m looking to put it to good use. I’m getting better with my symbiote ability, but I need someone who’ll let me practice it with them.

Simple explanation is that it’s healing, with a side effect that means it’s gonna hurt. Most likely for me. I can get into specifics if you’re up for it. ) [ If it doesn’t bother them or they’re willing to overlook that it means Sam getting hurt, he means, but seeing as he’s communicating with the Nest in general, he’s not gonna say that.

He already knows more than who person who is bothered by it and never seems willing to let Sam use it on them. ]

( I’ll take as many as I can get, more training can’t hurt. )

Comments

[erbier]

[ Her hand lingers all the same, making certain. In this moment, she certainly puts no faith in whatever it is Sam Wilson claims to do, and will not be satisfied without her own investigation. She certainly feels Ren's vindication that his ugly gambling paid off. She looks up into his face, unamused with him but fond even in anger, ]

That would be very cruel.

[ An idle retort but one with a truth beneath that brings a faint flush to her throat and chest. She ignores it. Turning very slowly to finally give attention to Sam. ]

Did I hear you say your powers also work in the other direction?

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ He moves his hand from Ren's side when Ilde steps in, shifting back to give them space. His focus goes briefly to the wound on his side, and part of him wants to ask Ren what the hell the thing that made it is - and maybe how Sam can get one - but right now he'll leave them to it.

Normally he might feel awkward about watching them, but this is the Nest. It's hard to keep things private unless you work at it, and they're making no attempt not to do whatever this is in front of him.

When Ilde turns to him, after that statement about suffering, he looks at her warily. ]

Yeah, I did.

[erbier]

[ Something sharp moves beneath the surface of her expression. It amuses her, somewhere dark and bitter, that he then thinks his power is to heal when indeed, it seems to her, his power is a conduit of pain. Just as she is a conduit of fear. If he were to change his attitude, he would be very dangerous indeed. But for now, he looks at her with nervousness, and that tells her the things she needs to know. She hides none of this from Kylo Ren, as she hides nothing from him. ]

Perhaps a test for another day.

[narcissithstic]

[As wary as Sam is, Ren's stare matches it equally: she wouldn't dare, would she (she would). Running that knife's edge between trust and uncertainty— and denial.

She is still his. She will always be his.]

You grow more vindictive by the day.

[That said, it isn't disapproval. From there, he refocuses yet again on Sam:] Thank you for proving your capability. Should I find myself wounded in the future, I now know who I can trust to see to it.

[erbier]

[ She raises an eyebrow ever so slightly at Ren. Such cordial manners, and a promise she would prefer him not to keep. But he is welcome to make his own mistakes. For her part... she doesn't think she'll be having Sam Wilson's healing hands laid upon her. They are not all they seem to be. ]

Of course, thank you, Sam.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

It's yours anytime you need it.

[ Which is a dangerous promise to make to someone like Ren, Sam's well aware - but he does it anyway, and he means it. There may be a darkness in Ren that runs deeper than what Sam's seen, but that doesn't change the points of commonality he's found with Ren, and it hasn't made him stop thinking of Ren as something like a friend.

Sam'd be out a hell of a lot of friends if he ruled out all of the ones with an unknown darkness in them, both here and back home. That probably says something about him, but it's not something he's willing to examine.

Instead he nods at Ilde, and doesn't ask if she's volunteering to be a subject in this test she's proposing. Another time. ]

[narcissithstic]

[For a moment longer Ren says nothing, aching to clarify to whom Sam's response was aimed towards. Defensiveness at its finest.

But no, he isn't so willing to be cruel. Samuel is, at his core, a good man. And a good man would not eagerly submit himself to Ilde's sharper, darker urges.

Not willingly, anyway.]

Should I escort you to the Nesting Deck?

[He'll need to heal. Moreso than what his body has done - and there is no better place on the station for it.]