Room 529, Thursday Midday

[weetuskenraider]

As decidedly less than thrilled Tahiri had been about the fact that someone had been able to pick up on her little mental friend so easily, Karla had offered her help. Riina had been pretty quiet lately -- but Tahiri didn't feel like counting on that to last. Although she wasn't holding out too much hope yet that there was actually a chance the girl she'd only just met a few days ago could do something about this problem, it definitely couldn't hurt to find out.

So with Hurley out for a few hours she'd handwavily given Karla a call, then took a seat on her bed to try and meditate for a little while. Talking about that particular experience was always unnerving, and just thinking about it now already had her on edge. Ergo, meditating. Or trying, anyway.

[OOC: Post is for peoples what know who they are, up whoa early for great SP justice and roomie modded with permission. Note to self, in case you forget because you are a flake, details of convo with Karla NFB like whoa, please. Notice for triggeriness: the thread with Karla will concern not-exactly-vague memories of torture, so consider that a heads-up.]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

"Well, I'm staying until you let me know it's time for me to leave," Karla said bluntly. "Which you can at any time, but only if you want me to go, okay? I've cleared my schedule, so there's nothing I need to worry about getting back to." She fished a dynamite stick out of the bag. "Though I do hope I can at least finish this, first."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri brushed crumbs off her jumpsuit and let out a tiny laugh. "I think that actually made me hungry. Is there anything else you need to know? About what happened?"

[glacial_queen]

"I can't think of anything just yet," Karla admitted, licking some of the caramel from the pastry off her fingers. "But I may just need a bit of time and distance to sort through everything. If I have questions later, may I ask them?"

[weetuskenraider]

"You bet." There was usually more fire in her voice when she said that. "I guess you need time to get over it too."

Tahiri chuckled again, sardonically. "So yeah, welcome to the war Jaina and I are fighting back home."

[glacial_queen]

"It was pretty intense," Karla said quietly. "Reminds me in some ways of things I'd left back home. But that's the nature of the game, I suppose. People's who've had lives filled with rainbows and unicorns and puppies generally don't need to speak to Black Widows."

[weetuskenraider]

Well. Tahiri had had what amounted to a centaur and two mermaids for friends when she was younger, for what that was worth. WTF, JJK, WTF. But Lyric and Lusa had both been run down and killed by the Yuuzhan Vong's Jedi-hunting voxyn -- it had been Lusa's death that had, in part, spurred Anakin to push Luke to mount the fateful mission to Myrkr -- and Sannah was in the Maw along with all the other young Jedi students (and baby Ben).

"That doesn't make our galaxy come out sounding very good," she tried to joke.

[glacial_queen]

"Remind me to tell you what's going on in my home Territory sometime," Karla said, subdued. "We have our own fair share of horrifying, I promise you that. Kaeleer is home to a Territory of unicorns, and yet we human Blood still manage to find reasons and ways to hurt one another. It's not a trait unique to either your galaxy or my home, unfortunately."

[weetuskenraider]

"No, I suppose not," Tahiri allowed, taking another bite of the pastry.

[glacial_queen]

"Which just means that unpleasant though your memories are," Karla continued, "there's very little that can shock me. Startle, yes. Horrify, of course. And if I even tried to tell you that your memories didn't rattle me a bit, you'd have every right to toss me out on my ear for lying. But...I'll understand. Better than many others, I think. I've seen a fair bit of the cruelty in the souls of humans--and now the...You-zan Vung?-or, at least, it's aftermath. I will walk this rode with you, and you need not fear for me. Okay?"

[weetuskenraider]

"Okay," Tahiri said with a tiny smile. "I believe you."

[glacial_queen]

"Good," Karla said. "That will make things much easier."

She was silent for a few moments, finishing her dynamite stick. Then, "Will this cause her to wake up?" she asked. "In cases like these, witnessing the creation of the other personality often causes them to be more active. Do you think Riina will respond? If she tries, do you have ways of keeping her quiet?"

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri shook her head. "I think I can keep her under control. I thought she was gone completely for a long time, until the last time I was home on a mission, and she's asserted herself a few times since then. She usually gets active when I'm trying to think like a Yuuzhan Vong, or under a lot of stress."

[glacial_queen]

"...And this wasn't stressful? Or, at least, stressful enough?"

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri shot her a wry smile. "At least I'm not alone right now. And you understand, now. It helps."

[glacial_queen]

"I'm glad," Karla said quietly. "And I'll do whatever I can to help. Which, right now, means offering another pastry," she said, holding out the bag.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri laughed softly. "I'll take it."

[glacial_queen]

"See? Useful already," Karla grinned. "...How are you doing?"

[weetuskenraider]

"I'm not going to want to spend the next few months curled up in a ball crying." Tahiri picked out a chocolate croissant and turned it over in her hands before taking a bite. "I did that, when it happened."

[glacial_queen]

"This is my shocked and surprised face," Karla deadpanned. "..If you hadn't, that would probably have been an indicator of even worse trauma. That you'd just...shut down. That's dangerous."

[weetuskenraider]

"I would have, after Anakin died," Tahiri mused; she had a vague recollection of lying next to his body in the hold of the Ksstarr, talking to him on the escape from Myrkr. "But that's when I was sent here."

[glacial_queen]

"How long has it been?" Karla asked quietly. If there was one thing she understood, it was the death of a loved one.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri took a bite of the croissant, trying to get herself composed. "Almost a year now. More or less; time passes strangely between here and home."

[glacial_queen]

"A year for you, regardless of the time passed elsewhere?" Karla probed. "Still pretty raw and recent then, yes? Healing's begun, of course," her relationship with Ben suggested that, "but nowhere close to being healed."

[weetuskenraider]

"Almost, and yes." Tahiri started picking at the croissant. "And yes. I wish it would heal faster, and at the same time I don't want it to."

[glacial_queen]

"I know what you mean." Karla's new pastry was intensely fascinating. "My parents died--were murdered, actually--six years ago. On the one hand, I get so frustrated and annoyed with myself when I'm suddenly reminded of them and I nearly cry. On the other hand, when I can think of them calmly, or I do something that used to make me cry and now doesn't, I wonder if I'm being...unfaithful to their memory. They were my parents. Shouldn't I mourn them forever or something? Am I truly such an ungrateful daughter?"

She slanted a look Tahiri's way. "Sound familiar, huh?"