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[open] [bendytimed to before everyone got all tense]

All throughout that day, there had been the figure of Lafiel, a strange, vaguely technological looking gauntlet attached to her thin arm. A cord ran from the tiara on her forehead to the sheath.

And where there had been things to be plugged into, she had plugged it in. All throughout the ship, the little empress had been plugging her brain into things, testing the neural interface that was her people's genetic signature. Cameras swivelled as she saw through their eyes. Escalators stopped, ran the opposite way, then ran the right way again. Maintenance droids were hijacked and made to do spins. She saw through their sensors, felt what they felt, exhilerated in the sensory immersion of the interface.

If you left something technological out, she might have plugged into that too.

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Katara hadn't seen either Lafiel or Meluly for several weeks since the incident involving Meluly being unwell. That whole situation had gotten pretty bad, and she had tried to put it out of her mind since the Nightmare King and Bene Gesserit training happened, but it had hurt. She actually had wanted that tattoo from Meluly, and she had looked at the woman as a good companion. With all the goings on, Katara could use all the support she could get, and she had missed Meluly much. Still, there was still a lot that she had to think about too. There was little room for self doubt now.

Now that she saw Lafiel though, she was a little curious before she got a little mad at seeing her. that assumption of bloodbending had stung, and that first dream of Hama had done little to ease her pain. Luckily, she'd had that talk with Sheena, and was a good deal less angry than usual.

"Lafiel, what are you doing?" Katara asked.

Lafiel spun, unplugging herself from a wall mounted camera. She wobbled for a second, disoriented, but gained her balance and regarded the Water Tribe girl with a cryptic look.

"Testing a control system." She said and held up the almfac gauntlet.

"A control system for what?" Katara asked, though her hands were extended in case Lafiel might fall. Just because she was slightly miffed at someone didn't mean she would let them get hurt.

"What does that...um, that thing do? It looks like a piece of armor."

Not that she'd EVER really seen armor like that. Maybe this was something Daja might build?

"Well...almost anything. We Abh have an organ in our brains that allows us to interface with any machine with a compatible interface, see through its sensors and control it as if it were our own left hands." The easiest way to mend things with Lafiel was to ask her about how the Abh were awesome in some way, it seemed, as her expression softened.

"That's pretty amazing!" Katara said, despite still wanting to be angry at her. "How does that work? I was lead to believe that the only kind of people who could do that were robots of some kind."

And there were some on the ship, she'd seen them herself. "Are you trying to talk to Stacy?"

"That was what we were created to be, nothing more than space exploration bioroids. But we broke free of our creators a long time, and I am one hundred percent organic." Lafiel considered the question, making a thinky face. "I wouldn't exactly call it talking...I can't process that much information at once. But perhaps you could say i'm looking at things through her sensors...Or eyes if you prefer."

"Really? That story sounds a lot like Melu..." Katara cut herself off, looking a little sad about that. It had, after all, been weeks since the dark skinned woman had seen her, and Katara wondered if that had been purposefully done. Katara, despite her new training, still work her feelings on her sleeve, so when a friend on hers didn't speak with her for awhile, it hurt to think about.

"How's Meluly?" Katara asked, trying to keep her voice level. "I haven;t seen her in a long time, not since THAT day. Is she feeling better?"

"There are...many similarities between us." Lafiel was trying to be diplomatic here. Something was strange with the girl. "She is well, for now. But besides that it vaguely happens on some semimonthly schedule, we have no idea when her next attack will be. Is something wrong?" Being an ambassador had taught her to go right for the hearts of matters or they would build up into much bigger problems down the line.

"Well, I didn't know that," Katara said, narrowing her eyes, "just like YOU didn't know I wasn't going to attack her before, I guess, although I still don't know why you thought I would do that in the first place."

Yes, Katara was still a little upset about it.

"Is something wrong? No, I guess I can't say anything's wrong. It's just...we were getting along pretty well, and were making plans, and I haven't seen her in awhile. I know that we're all busy, preparing for the Nightmare King and all, I just wanted to know she was okay, that's all."

Katara sighed. She must have sounded completely stupid, but she didn't even know if she could explain why she felt like that in the first place.

"I told you, it was a mistake. I lept to conclusions because i'm her reiozy...It's a concept among the Nazzadi. It means something like 'the one who watches over you while you sleep'. If it seems she's avoiding you, that's probably because she fears harming you in her unstable state."

Like twin signal beacons above a wall, Lafiel's cheeks lit up when explaining her duty to her. She kept her dignity though, stiff backed.

"Oh," Katara said, and was a little comforted by that. "That actually comforts me a little, to be honest. I know it might have seen weird to see me there with her, she's just...been someone I could let close to me. Seeing her like that was a little frightening, but I thought because of what happened back then she was staying away from me. Thinking that was a bit worse."

Katara had no other conceptions of her and Meluly being anything other than friends, and had understood the woman's frustration. And she had told Katara actually who it was that she cared that much about.

"How are things between you two, if you don't mind me asking?" Katara asked.

Someone I could let close to me... Lafiel mulled over the ambiguity of that statement, doubtless coming up with quite a few misinterpretations. It stabbed at her in a strange way. Having been close to so few people, she did not know what the term meant in that case. Close like she was to Jinto? Or to her father and little brother?

The first, for some reason, made her uncomfortable.

"What do you mean?" She played perhaps a little dumb.

Katara narrowed her eyes. "She and I spoke for a long time, Lafiel. Just like she know who it is I care about most of all, she let me know that there was someone she cared about that much. You and I know, considering how aggressive and deeply she cares, that whoever that person is, they'd be pretty crazy to push her away."

Which was, if she curious, Katara letting Lafiel know exactly where Meluly's feelings lay.

"And so I want to know how things are between you and she," Katara said. "Call me a hopeless romantic."

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