( For I have made her prison be Her every step away from me And this child I would destroy If you tried to set her free )



<small>((ooc: Letowrm is being played by Hedge on this leto account with mod permission dunefagging within.))

In the contrived visions of the computer Alia summoned the images of her own. It only seemed like the right place. Here on the sands of Arakkis, she could confront the bane of her existence here on the ship.
Once this girl had shared almost kind words with her, but now, now Alia's fury raged inside, fueled by the rabble of voices within.

Damn the extra spice Sheeana was making, damn the sister hood, damn her family name. It didn't matter, not now, in that moment, it all fell away in the face of her anger and discontent.

Alia sat cross legged on a ledge, over looking the rolling dunes. Behind her, beyond the sheer stone walls she knew lay the images of seitch tabar. But they where only echos of her memories, they weren't real. The run on her skin, the sand gritty and find beneath her thighs, the wind the blew little rivers of sand to and fro... it was all an illusion. A glorious back drop to the firey words that gathered in her mouth.

There was much to say.

Katara normally was a bundle of energy, or at least willing to try to look on the bright side of things, and greeted the day with a burst of energy. But when she woke up, there was no relief there, no calm demeanor. Right now Katara felt restless, and not being able to help Roxie like Katara had hoped made her unable to go back to sleep. Even if the Nightmare King wouldn't be meddling this time, she would never be able to get certain images out of his head. Hama crawling after them, Aang and the Seer stopping her, Hama losing her head, learning that it was just a part of the Nightmare King. She'd knew now that the danger she'd faced was only slight compared to what was in store, and that despite all of her training and preparation, she'd failed. If the Nightmare King could do this, he could do worse.

So she found herself in the Sensorium, and now she was met with the Northern water Tribe, where she had faced Master Pakku when he refused to teach her waterbending because he was a girl. There was no Master Pakku to face this time: instead, she had recreated the pirates from when they were trying to take the ship. She faced them down, but she didn't have her normal clothing on: she had decided to emulate some of the modern wear she'd seen some of the other girls on the ship wear. She had on a loose cotton blue shirt, her hair tied back, with long flowing slacks. She breathed in, and brought her hands up. She closed her eyes, hearing the scoffing of the pirates. They didn't take her seriously: why should they? She was just a little girl, and there were several of them, with long, powerful weapons and tentacles and sharp teeth.

She closed her eyes, and felt the wind change: first attack. Her hands moved of their own accord and pushed against the pirate. The shift in balance made him fall to the floor and Katara used him as leverage to give a flying leap in the air, and hammer down on the other pirates. Before her training with Sheeana, she wouldn't have attacked without waterbending, but now she was moving with fury, taking the pirates confusion as an advantage to shift their weight and incapacitate them. She moved with purpose, and hardly used offense: instead, she moved in her dance, but quicker, smoother, balancing herself and making her enemies fall. She knew that Toph was much better at this, but it didn't hurt to use her speed and defense against them.

When she had gotten to the last few pirates she froze them all together, then sat down in cross legged position. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and closed her eyes again. One, two. One two. One two- one-two.

She remembered Aang's instructions, and knew that this would be another test. The last time she'd gotten limited sleep she got pretty cranky and started to lash out. Now though, she would know better. She wouldn't be screaming at anyone, she would stay calm, she would stay centered, and then, when she felt relaxed, she would continue her training.

Tess had to train without her suit, so Katara would hold off on her waterbending.

She WOULD strengthen her will. She would not bend to the Nightmare King again.

When he first saw it weeks ago, shortly after the crew had finally caught up him, he thought for certain that he was hallucinating. But there it was, nestled among several other castles. The Luthor Mansion, in all it's glory.

Lex was never a superstitious man, but even he believed that there was more to heaven and earth than what could be proven on paper. The appearance of his home, a reward no other crew member had received (to his knowledge), certainly made him think. He wondered if this was some sort of sign that his decisions so far had indeed been right, or that he was on the right path. Perhaps it was put there as a distraction of sorts, as well, as there were many unpleasant memories that haunted those walls. For the time being, he decided to take it as a reward, however relocating there initially proved to be problematic.

The Mansion wasn't in disarray, but it was clear that no one had walked its halls in quite some time. Not only that, but the last people who had clearly had little regard for the property. There was a layer of dirt and dust everywhere, expensive and priceless paintings had been torn off the walls and trashed, priceless artifacts were just broken pieces of clay or stone, pieces of antique furniture had been smashed, and every vault was empty. Not a single green meteor rock to be found. He counted himself lucky that his pool table, piano, and a handful of family photos managed to survive.

Rather than be dejected, Lex looked at it as project to occupy his time. Since he only worked in Neuropathy whenever he felt like it, and manned the bar in the lounge at his discretion, he did have plenty of time to devote to this project. Which was good, because cleaning up and fixing up a 40 room mansion-- replete with its own library (with real books), well supplied medieval armory and modern armory, pool, wine cellar, gym, and grand ballroom-- took a lot of work.

Work which still hadn't been completed, but he had progressed far enough to not only make it livable, but also presentable. The master bedroom, Lex's office, and most of the common areas had been cleaned up. All the rest was blocked off for the moment, but were in locations that were fairly out of the way.

So, he put out a message on the omnicomms, and invited a few people to check the place out. The ones who weren't already spying on him, at any rate. He laid out a few drinks, and a sampling of some of the fresh fruit and food he picked up while during their last mission to earth. He didn't expect many guests, after all, he had never been the most well liked person, even back when he was a relatively kindhearted kid. Most parties he hosted as an adult, he was usually surrounded by obsequious employees desperate to move up the food chain, business partners who wanted a more favorable deal, business rivals who were trying to find out something about the competition, charity representatives who wanted money, and sycophants who wanted the notoriety of being in the same room as Lex Luthor and access to the connections that alone can bring. Friends were simply a foreign concept, if he ever truly had any to begin with, and he certainly hadn't gone out of his way to make any on the ship. He was curious as to what category his guests, if he had any, would fit in.

((ooc: This is something of a party style post, so feel free to talk to Lex, Lois, or talk to each other while your character looks around.))

The day after the Hannukah celebration, Katara had time to think about the last twenty four hours. The idea of a challenge, the training Sheeana was taking about, was still fresh in her mind. There was no avoiding it: she WANTED to be a Bene Gesserit, wanted to be trained well enough that she could move as the Mother did. She didn't know how enthusiastic she had seemed then, but she had even replaced one of her usual Yoga practices with trying to move a limb independent of all other: to no avail, sadly, but she was getting closer, she knew that well enough, but it wasn't enough for her to do the exercises, she wanted to know more about them too. So naturally, the Media library was the best place to go.

She made her way to the place and poured through the material, avoiding several interesting books about martial arts and looked up specific sisterhood paths. There were several interesting goddess ones she wanted to research later, and one called "Dianic Wicca" that would probably have bothered Sokka, but she was finally at the Bene Gesserit, and engrossed herself in her readings.

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness."

"Interesting," Katara said to herself aloud, reading on.

The ship was to loud, or to quite, Alia didn't know. Hrr sheets hurt her skin, her mind burned with a grandfather of a sandstorm, tearing her flesh from the inside out.
The voices...
Since last week, when she had shouted at the memories of her grandfather, Baron Valdimir Harokonnen, things had only become progressively worse. Every soul with in here was clawing tooth and nail for control, for a moment in her flesh like she had given to him. They all wanted their piece of her, and she had none of herself left to give anymore.
The sorrow of her dear brother's death burned like a fire in her heart, paired with the loss of her husband, and her arrival here where she was prodded and probed by her family from the future.
They all knew something, they all knew what the future held and they would not tell her. The Bene Gesserit witches holding their power over her, as they always had. Even here she could not escape their tyranny and oppression. They had created the monster she was, and then left her to suffer under the weight of her own abomination that was crushing her even now.

It had been hard to find him, with out the use of a computer. But somehow in Alia's tormented state she was able to find the door.
Alia stood there now, just before it, her body trembled like a leaf, her mind screaming. If she where not fremen, she would have cried.
Hesitating, Aia did not knock at first, her eyes closed tight against the pain within her.
"duncan..."
But Duncan was not here...
He was all she had to turn to...

Alia raised her hand and knocked unevenly, with out rhythm, shaking and crying she waited. Praying with the only silver of her mind she still controlled that he would answer the door and save her with those blue eyes that reminded her so much of his.

Psychedelic sand filled an olympic swimming pool under an awning in the city. Little clouds of it kicked up behind Sheeana's heels as she danced. There was no rythm and meter to what she did. It was a natural thing she'd known since she was a child. Hands and arms flew in abstract patterns only she could see.

The big worm, the one Arha had brought stood entranced, swaying like a charmed snake. He was not her target though. It was the sandtrout in the sand. They came bubbling out of it like their earth counterparts after rain. And slowly they aggregated. Something like a sandworm emerged. It lacked the internal fires and the teeth, but it had the same form. Only eight feet long, it was an infant but a motile one. That it would dissolve back into sandtrout in an hour didn't matter. It contained the important part: Leto's consciousness.

She danced to command it and to hold it together. She breathed harder, taking deep breaths to maintain homeostasis, and the new worm sat up. Had she not been Fremen, sweat would have run down the side of her face.

"Come out of your endless dream, God-Emperor. Come out." She spoke to it between breaths and it responded.

She was so absorbed, it took her a few moments to notice when her visitors had arrived.

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their number. After the recent revelation, many of them were even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Brainiac 5 and Sensor were set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.