Room 529, Friday Late Morning

[weetuskenraider]

It was raining syrup outside. Well, that pretty much answered the question of whether Tahiri was going anywhere today . . . or it was a convenient excuse, anyway.

She expected she'd go stir-crazy holed up in her room after a while, but even if she was feeling more stable today, Wednesday night's incident with Raven and Karla in the salle wasn't something she could just brush off. Which could have had something to do with the fact that in between the time she remembered getting agitated by Raven's offers to help her and seeing Raven and Karla recovering from a telekinetic blast that she'd apparently thrown, everything was a blur.

That was new. And not at all welcome.

Yeah. Tahiri wasn't going anywhere today.

[OOC: Which does not mean you can't bother her, so the post is open even if the door is closed and the wee Jedi is not in the best of moods. She'd been in a good mood too long, dammit. I don't think canon allows that. ETA: Aaaaaaaand let's say the details of the conversations with Ben and Karla are NFB, please? Yay crazy head!alien?]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben, after his in retrospect, poorly planned jog through the syrup-rain, rapped softly at Tahiri's door. His hair was still damp from his shower.

"It's me."

[weetuskenraider]

"Come on in, Ben," Tahiri called, not moving from where she sat on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest and looking out the window. "It's not locked."

[momslilassassin]

"I brought coffee ice cream," he said, "since it's still morning."

He was mostly trying to see how hard it was going to be to get her to smile.

[weetuskenraider]

It was him, so it might not be as hard as he thought; Tahiri did crack a tiny, tiny smile for a second.

"You're smart that way," she told him, her glance flicking up to his hair. "Did you get caught out in that?"

[momslilassassin]

"Yes," he said with a little frown as he sat down next to her. "That'll teach me to go through my daily routine on auto-pilot."

[weetuskenraider]

She scooted a little closer to him on instinct, but stopped just short of actually touching him. "I thought I'd take it as a sign I should just stay in." Yes, because that was the real reason.

[momslilassassin]

"But that wasn't the only reason," he added quietly.

[weetuskenraider]

She smiled again, ironically this time. "Are we starting to get to the point where you can finish my thoughts, or do you just know me that well?"

[momslilassassin]

"I just know you," he said, handing her the pint of ice cream. "Ready to talk about it yet?"

[weetuskenraider]

It would be a little freaky the other way, so that was a relief. Tahiri wrapped her hands around the pint of ice cream, cold or not, and nodded.

"It got worse after you left, the other night. A lot worse, and I don't remember everything," she began. "I remember some things . . . and there's a blank place in the middle."

[momslilassassin]

Ben had noticed that she hadn't touched him and wasn't about to make the first move on that, remembering how little he'd wanted contact back in the spring.

"Riina?" he guessed softly.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri nodded and turned the pint container around a couple of times before finally opening it.

"Ben, it was bad. I remember Raven asking me to let her help me. I know she meant well, but I didn't want to risk it. She kept insisting, and Riina just kept getting madder, and I couldn't stop her. The next thing I remember is Raven on the floor, and Karla was there, and I don't know what I -- she -- did but I almost hurt them," she finished in a breathless, guilty rush. "I must have tried, at least."

[momslilassassin]

It was times like this when it was no fun at all to be an empath because Ben really felt Tahiri's guilt.

He chewed on his lower lip, buying time to get his emotions under control. "Do we need to call Dad?" he finally asked.

[glacial_queen]

Karla, hair also damp from her own lengthy shower, knocked on the door after her flight with Francine around the island. "Tahiri?" Karla called, "you there?"

Of course she was. Karla could sense her. But if Tahiri didn't want to answer the door, Karla could easily pretend she didn't.

[weetuskenraider]

Quite possibly this was the Force's way of telling Tahiri she should at least leave the room long enough to shower.

"I'm here," she called back, wincing a little; the guilt was still strong in this one after the other day. "You can come in if you want to."

[glacial_queen]

Well, we didn't want to say...

Karla opened the door, giving Tahiri a sympathetic look. "You can kick me out whenever you want to, too." she said. "I'll understand. You can even pretend you want to take a nap so I don't feel bad," she added with a grin.

[weetuskenraider]

Well, that was diplomatic of you.

"I don't kick people out." Unconsciously, Tahiri drew in on herself a little. "Unless they're really annoying me, and you haven't done that yet."

She bit her lip and glanced hesitantly at Karla. "You're okay, right?"

[glacial_queen]

"You'd be surprised how quickly and how often I do annoy people," Karla teased lightly. "So I won't make you promise anything."

She came in a little further, sitting on the floor so she wouldn't crowd Tahiri. "I'm fine," she said, looking Tahiri in the eyes. "She didn't hurt me. I don't think I want to go all out with her, especially if she keeps your lightsaber, but in a little tussle like that, she can't hurt me."

[weetuskenraider]

"You can handle yourself. I'm not worried about that," Tahiri answered, fiddling with the edge of her bedsheet. "What worries me is where I'm blanking out on what happened, and the fact that she tried to use me to hurt you, and I couldn't stop her."

[glacial_queen]

"Would you like to see?" Karla asked quietly. "It won't address the actual problem, but at least you will no longer be unsure of exactly what happened."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri hesitated -- something that, she realized, she did a lot these days, even though she never had before she'd been captured on Yavin 4. She clenched her jaw and finally nodded. "Show me." Her voice was steadier than she felt.

[glacial_queen]

"It's okay," Karla promised. She lowered her inner barriers a bit and politely tapped on Tahiri's own, sending a psychic thread her way. *Whenever you're ready.*

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri still wasn't used to having non-Jedi speaking in her mind, especially so soon after the Force meld strategy at Ebaq 9, but she nodded, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. *I'm ready. Well, as I'll ever be.* How ready could you be for something like this, anyway? Seeing what another person, essentially, had used you to do?

[glacial_queen]

Karla's touch was light, bringing the memory forward and leaving it there for Tahiri to grab. There were none of Karla's personal thoughts remaining, but the emotions were still there. Still, she did her best to make them as non-immediate as she could.

[weetuskenraider]

Hesitating -- again -- Tahiri took hold of the memory in a tentative mental grasp. She didn't expect she'd like it, and on that point she wasn't going to be let down.

Sithspawn. Was that what she looked like when Riina took control? Anakin had told her about how her voice went funny and her expression changed, but he'd never mentioned the way the cold seeped into her eyes and made them seem so pale. Typical of him, really, she thought affectionately.

She watched, her jaw clenching, as Riina launched herself at Karla's shields, chased her across the salle, and finally let loose with the Force blast that had knocked Raven down.

That was as much as she wanted to see, and Tahiri let go of the memory with a sharp hiss.