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Being from (Ar)Rakis, Sheeana's first thoughts on the dark dreams that had been afflicting her fellow crewmates had more to do with hurricanes and sandstorms than clouds. The metaphor was the same though.

That was her thought as she sat in the lotus position in front of Arha's door (she would not leave her if she had another such dream, but would not tempt herself into sleep by joining her either). Sandstorms. She missed them so, the beating, suffocating, gritty howl of them. Real weather, to rasp at the skin, to shape both person and landscape. Sand or rock crunching underfoot, screaming winds, danger that could be understood and grasped by human hands. I am a desert creature. I need the environment I was born for.

She longed for them as for the touch of a lover.

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"Five pence for thy thoughts?" Khel asked, approaching and sitting down next to the young woman. Since the shared dream they had experienced, he had felt much closer to Sheeana than even before. It could have been because of his somewhat conservative views regarding courtship and sexuality, but Khel viewed it simply as regardless of one's perspective, what they had shared was a special moment, regardless of the level one took it as. Even still, he tried hard not to let it influence his actions with her. He was well aware there were differences between their cultures, and after doing some research on the Bene Gesserit, he was certain that some of their views would not mesh all that well.

He spoke on none of this, however. "I would hear thee, if thou wilt but speak," he offered, "or, thou willing, perhaps I can speak instead, and that may be enough?"

Blue within blue eyes slowly opened. She was weary, and even a Reverend Mother could not fully suppress that. Two full time students, keeping tabs on all the ship's machiavellian dealings, tending to the worms, writing down the details of dozens of cultures, fitting in time for her own training and now guarding Arha from her own malevolent dreams as best she could...

Nevertheless she favored him with a wan smile. "Sister Masaari was having one of those dreams. I would enjoy it if you would help keep me awake a little longer here." That time the innuendo was unintentional for once in her life.

Khel arched an eyeridge at Sheeana's wanness. "Thou art not tired, but exhausted. If thou art in need of rest, then approaching me can always be thy option. I do not sleep, Sheeana. I can guard thee and thy friends and pupils." He craned his head to regard the ceiling above them, and, quite shockingly, sighed. It was the first human fidget he'd performed in centuries, but it seemed ... appropriate.

"I wouldst keep thee awake for now, but there is much I wish to discuss with thee, and I fear I have not been forward enough in my intentions or my words as of late."

"Khel, I mean no offense by this, but if Sister Masaari wakes from a night terror and you are the first thing she sees..." She paused at his next sentence. She could tell he was leading up to a confession. For a moment she longed for the innocence she'd never had, to blush and giggle at his confession. No! The unclouded eye is better no matter what it sees.

"...Go on."

"Everyone is tired, milady Brugh. I feel it as suren I felt thee ... that-- hmm. Night." If a skeleton could blush, Khel most certainly would have, but he muscled (if you'll pardon the term) on through. "I consider thee a true and worthy friend. Possibly more. I am uncertain, after so many years of isolation and numbness. For the longest while, I have been merely The Bone Lord, a legend to frighten children and stir adventurers. With thee, I am Khel no'Gran, knight of Tyr once more. Even so, I am a knight without knighthood, an order of a brotherhood with no brothers. I lack purpose.

"I am not stupid, milady. I did my research about the Bene Gesserit. The media library hath much in the way of knowledge regarding thy order. The connections, purposes and reasons for which I fight are different from thy Sisterhood, very different. Even so, we are similar. We believe in a greater good, and while thine methods wouldst be considered questionable by some amongst the Paladins, I have the advantage of eons. I have seen the grander scale, and it is as important as the short term.

"I was able to add the points together. The final piece of the puzzle was the notice thou left for me to read. My confession is of two points, Sheeana, and they are thus: I care for thee, in a manner I had thought I might have forgotten, and I can accept the differences if thou wouldst but have me. Secondly: I mind not being ... used as needed.

"All I ask is that thou maketh thy intentions, needs or agenda clear to me, that I might help thee better."

Sheeana sighed, looked at the ceiling, away down the hall, briefly back at his face. "I care for you too, Khel. But I am a professional seductress. What man would have me, knowing I would be in the beds of others? And I am also the first to consider you a true man for a long time. I was witness to Leto the God-Emperor's confessions at the ruins of Sietch Tabr. I think I know what you must be feeling right now." She was not Hwi Noree though, not the gentle Ixian girl.
She squeezed bony fingers held together inexplicably. "Knowing that what do you think of me? And separately...As an organization, you must have read that sometimes we accept men as our confidants...Miles Teg, Duncan Idaho, you must have seen those names...Would you wish to become one as well, knowing that though we hold the good of humanity as our highest goal, we do not hesitate to use methods others would find distasteful in service of it? Think on these questions, please."

"Sheeana ... all this I suspected already. There were courtesans in my own world as well. Combined with thine Sisterhood, it seems an obvious match. And look at me. I am no longer a king, to take care whom I consort with. I am no noble, either, keen to hold public opinion. And after the way my last marriage ended, wouldst thou blame me for ignoring the 'sweet and shy maiden'? T'would strike me that they can be the most suspicious. With thee, I know where I stand."

"I pledge to be honest with you then. And the other question? Would you share our noble purpose, a mature humanity?" Her voice was devoid of recruitment pitch intensity. She couldn't muster the energy even if she tried.

"And finally...There is...was...another man." If she weren't finely attuned to her body, she would have blushed. "Duncan Idaho, the Ghola. We never...Well, he was bound to his Honored Matre lover too much. But what if he shows up?"

"I would honor him as a brother, and commend him for a fine taste in women. I was an adventurer for years before I was a king, milady." Khel cocked his head to the side, his lower jaw askew in its best imitation of a wry grin.

"I did offer to tell thee of such, did I not?"

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Arha pulled her cloak around her and tried to sleep only to find herself staring up at the mottled dark green ceiling. This wasn't working at all. If she did not sleep, she would not do well in the flying machine simulations, and that would make her as unhappy as when she did poorly in a lightsaber lesson (which was often enough to make her ever more determined to improve).

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and her brow furrowed as she swept a tangle of hair back behind her shoulder. It was so much longer and heavier than it had been when she had pod popped that she had taken to pinning it up in braids. Now it was a twisted mass of curl that hung heavily to the middle of her back and swung as she got to her feet.

Sheeana was outside, that she could tell. Since sleep wasn't coming, company was, by far, more pleasant. The door eased open and she quietly found a spot next to her Sister.

Sheeana sleepily gave her a sidelong glance. She supressed, and then decided to stop supressing a yawn.

"Sister, you are making this work pointless. Must I Voice you into sleep like a petulant acolyte? Or are you going to continue to make me worry by pushing yourself harder every night?" A bit of hypocrisy, also Darwi's maternalness showing through.

"There is only so much staring at the ceiling will grant me," Arha said wryly. "You may worry all you wish, Sheeana, the worry does not do anything but sit. It is difficult to sleep at the moment, possibly because my bed is empty and Obi-Wan is elsewhere." She frowned and then shrugged.

"Perhaps that is an excuse. That and you are thinking of the desert, yes?" Arha played with the edge of her cloak. "It is tempting to go to the Sensorium, but it is not real."

"Would you wish me to warm your bed then? I have certainly warmed enough in my time." The question hit her like a jolt to the bellybutton. "How did you know?"

"I am not quite sure if Obi-Wan would take that wrong or not," she said, amusement flicking across her features as she glanced at Sheeana. "It is a deep thing, Sheeana, and we both have been marked by the sands of Arrakis. I would be surprised if you were not thinking of it now. In moments like this, I, too, turn to the thought of my cave and the way sandstorms howl past its opening while I am curled save in my alcove. We may leave the desert, but it never truly leaves us, not us."

She had, unfortunately, hit the nail right on the head. "I. Need. Real. Weather!" Once again she realized she'd been shaking her companion. It was reticent of the frustration she'd expressed to Khel the other night. And while sexual frustration could be temporarily cured, Arha could hardly summon the winds for her. "...Sorry...This is not a way for humans to live, confined in a spaceship like a guild navigator."

Arha let Sheeana shake her, let her finish, too, and understood the frustration all too well. She craved the wind and the sharp touch of sand, the dry air, and the stretches of sunset that glinted of the rocks and shimmered as it was reflected in the sand. She was no stranger to the frustration of being pent up in this place.

"I share your frustrations," Arha said, her palms cupping Sheeana's cheeks. "This is no way to live and it does not help us to be without like this, but so too do we have little choice in the matter. Why else do I keep myself moving all the time, everywhere, go, go, go, learn, learn, learn, mm? We are creatures of the wind and sand as we have always been. And we need to be let out more often than most."

She gently stroked her thumbs along Sheeana's cheekbones and let out a soft sigh.

"I have no suggestions to aid you in this one. We are both as busy as we could possibly be."

Sheeana thought she understood then a bit. Arha had the same frustrations as her, the ones that caused her to protest with her outrageous sexual behavior back on Chapterhouse. In the ancient Reverend Mother though it manifested in a need to find and learn new things.

"I need not suggestions but good companions." She replied before yawning again and lolling her head onto Arha's shoulder. She closed her eyes. "One of us has to sleep at least..."

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ladyofthesands.livejournal.com - 2010-01-14 22:38 (UTC) - Expand

From some distance, Motoko saw Sheeana guarding the door. Ordinarily she would have passed by, and the momentary glance would have been just that; a flicker of memory, inconsequential and half-forgotten under the rest, but something made her hesitate.

A whisper.

The Major had not lived her life based entirely on what passed for logic in her world. She'd come to trust those little bursts of intuition as the last bastion of humanity left in her. The whispers of a dying ghost, trapped in a complex and beautiful puzzle-box. She paced silently towards Sheeana, looking down at her with sphynx's eyes, intently judicial and inhuman. There was no reading this strange mood.

"It's late," An idle bite of conversation. What else was she expecting?

Sheeana lazily opened her eyes and regarded the major with a heavy lidded stare. "Really? I hadn't noticed. I was just doing my normal afternoon door-sitting. I must have lost track of time." The snark must flow.

"Cute."

Sometimes it was easy to forget that Sheeana was so young. And sometimes, it really wasn't.

"Since this is your normal occupation," She trailed off a moment, affecting as if to be in thought, mocking her, "I should leave you to it. It's bad luck to disturb a Bodhisattva in training."

Well that was doubly ironic, since the Missionaria Protectiva had trained her to occupy exactly that role.

"This is one of those good works on earth interludes, not a moment of enlightenment. Stay and you might become a saint." Which was the closest she would get to an invitation to stay. She didn't think twice about what to Motoko would sound like ridiculous spiritual mashups. There had been a lot of merging of religions in the times between their centuries.

Spiritual mashups she can deal with. On occasion to does talk to Togusa and between his, Batou's and her own they have some pretty twisted collections of memories.

"If saints guard doors from nightmares, I'm not keen to begin," But she isn't moving away, "I'm not the kind of person to wait around for danger to find me."

"That already happened. It's not coming back. I'm guarding against...echos. Reverberations of the previous nightmare in her brain." This was an unexpected note of caution from the bold Major.

Anyway she could have used the help staying awake.

"I didn't realize you were psychic as well," It's said with some token amount of sarcasm, but her expression was absolutely neutral and whatever incredulous reaction she has to Sheeana's assertion is hidden, "Or is sleep-deprivation finally getting to you?"

"I'm not. Just very sensitive to sound and the acrid scent of sweat." She patted the ground next to her. Sit the fuck down already. This looking up at you is messing up the social dynamic. "And why are you up? Don't you require sleep?"