((Logged August 02, 2000))

Ezekiel: Operating Room 1
Contents:
Talon

Erine has arrived.
Luka has arrived.

As the door opens upon the scene alls one can see is semi darkness, a few 
flickers of light here and there but for the most part dark.  If one was to look 
carefully enough they would see the form of Talon hudddled in a back corner.  He 
shivers every once and a while and that is really all the sound and movement one 
can see him do.

Luka motions for the guards outside to be wary, stepping just within the 
interior past the doorway. "Talon?" she calls. "I had heard that you were not 
feeling well... would you like to talk?"

Erine merely stands a bit behind Luka, calm as calm can be.  She doesn't bother 
to cast a peek in the room.. That's a glance that'll come soon enough.  For now, 
she just stands calmly, full Ethos clad in a highest Solarian security area, as 
if she were in an area as restricted as a meadow field.

Talon a spark of light iluminates the figure for a moment, before dying out 
again, Talon in that instant says nothing, merely sitting there he shivers 
again.

Luka steps aside so that Erine may enter, tilting her head as she eyes the 
huddled figure. "Talon?" she calls again, as kindly as if speaking to a child. 
"You know who we both are. You don't want to stay here, do you? Why don't we 
talk..."

Erine enters slowly, steps light and hardly noted by sound, standing beside Luka 
a shade, from half blocking the pale light which arcs across the room, throws a 
blurred shadow of Erine about.  And with that she smiles, sweet as can be, 
muttering weakly, "Such a while its been..." As if it were all so much a 
conversational moment.  But her words are light and quiet, more a peculiar 
greeting than anything of note.

Talon remains where he is still, he looks up, though only his outline can be 
seen basically in the next flash of light a sense of hopeless panic stares out 
from hsi wolfish gaze, "Talk?"

"You see," Luka murmers to Erine, gesturing to the body language of the young 
man across from them. "As was said..." Turning back to Talon, she nods calmly. 
"You still can do that, correct? You remember me, and you remember her," her 
hand points to herself and then to the Etone. "and we are here to see how you 
are doing. Wouldn't you like that, Talon?"

Erine glances to Talon a moment more in all his desperation, before turning to 
Luka at her words.  For that moment, her smile has paled a shade, her eyes and 
expression are lost to the palest light and she notes merely, "Hm.."  Silence a 
moment before she notes, "Oh, I do pray you remember.. Would be such a shame and 
wasted effort otherwise..."  She's merely highlighting the words that Luka 
notes, of course, with her bittersweet words.. Held in pleasant words with a 
pleasant edge, but with a sort of force of emotion catching about it.  As if it 
were mildly tiring, somehow, to speak.

"What will it solve?"  His voice is highlghted with that same deseration in his 
gaze, "I'm a failure if thats what you wante to hear...."

Luka smiles kindly, folding her arms behind her and leaning back against them on 
the wall. "Eri, perhaps some light to be shed?" she murmers, watching Talon. 
"Now... why would you think yourself to be a failure, Talon? Because of Adesha?"

Erine glances about, taking a few idle steps about before finding some means of 
a light control, "So senseless to keep it so dark.  But efficient.  I suppose no 
fault can be kept with that.  Efficient psychologically and practically..."  
Mutterings beneath her breath, faintly chimed but with a pale sort of calmness 
that is unbenefiting to Erine's usually cheerful chime.  She flicks on the 
lights, which pour about the room with a sort of brilliance that draw her glance 
to squint swiftly...

Talon covers his eyes at the sudden brilliance, he still renains in thay corner, 
"Not just that..."

Luka does not flinch as the lights glare across the room, continuing to speak in 
a merciless kindness. "Because you transformed again? Because you were on the 
side of Solaris? Come now, Talon. Should we drag your -brother- up here and have 
the two of you face off across bars again? How long will you let yourself stay 
down like this before you become a failure in truth by refusing to recover?" Her 
voice is so light that it is almost formed entirely of pity and gentle 
understanding.

"What use are any of those things, after all?"  Erine, for once, actually 
donates something of her own to the conversation, blinking those emerald eyes 
against the light as a smile dawns on her face once more, ironic to the darker 
situation and conversation, "Things happen to everyone, good and bad.  Make what 
you struggle over a strength... Or at least 'Learn from your Mistakes'.  
Failures are Chosen, not made."  All so blastedly optimistic, in the way that a 
motivational speaker might be to the deprived audiences.  And with that chime of 
words and a smile, she notes, a bit more calmer and a great deal more quietly, 
"Its only efficient."  It almost seems irritated, distantly.

Talon remains where he is again, he pauses, "None of this would have happened 
if...."  He trrails off.

"If -what-?" Luka purrs, contrasting Erine's incredible cheer with her sharp 
words and indifferent kindness. "If you had only died as a child? If you hadn't 
cared about what Solaris had turned you into? If you had been strangled by your 
mother upon her first sight of you, left to drown by your brother when the two 
of you went swimming as children?" Turning away from him, she studies the room 
and hands the conversation to Erine through her silence.

"If you had taken up gardening or cross-stitching away and afar from the notice 
of anyone, instead of being in a possition to be tossed to this mess.... Oh.." 
Erine trails off, as if her example was a shade peculiar.  And with that, she 
giggles.  Amazing how she can be so light hearted in a situation such as this 
one, "If, if, if!  A lot of things in this world would be different if you If-
But them.  What use does condeming it now do?  Just don't do it again.  Isn't 
that the lesson?"

Talon looks sharply at Erine, probably the first sign of movement the whole 
time, "I had no say in the matter..." He puts his head on is forearms again, 
"Your right I do wish I was dead, I should have died long before I became what I 
am..."

Luka smiles suddenly, replying in a flash, "Oh, didn't you? Everyone has a -
choice-, Adel. If you truly wish to die, you will find a way. If you truly wish 
to live, then you will struggle through this. Oh, you can be so remarkably -
creative- when you really want to die--have you hit that bottom yet, or is it 
only comforting to think that you have? That all the despair you feel now is all 
that could ever be, that -no one- has ever felt as poorly as you do? Either run 
away now, Adel, or stand back up and have a decent meal with us."

"Hmph!"  Its so high pitched and short that it could be the protest of a child 
as Erine turns her glance away from Talon, almost as a child might do in 
pouting, "Such a glance!  Well.  She's right, you know.  There's no such thing 
as someone having no control over their life at all..  If you were a Puppet in 
every manner, it wouldn't bother you as much to know that as truth.  But you 
decline the fate you're given and yet raise not a hand to avoid it... Certainly, 
there is a way, a place, a time where you can be as you are and not opressed by 
fate."  A shrug, "But you don't try.  Or don't really -want- to.  Are you all 
words, dear?  All word and no action and no will?  I bet you don't even care if 
you do so and waste all our effort and time..."

Talon stares at the two women, "..." He looks to the side again, "Very well." is 
all he says,

Luka shakes her head, sighing. "Talon, I have sent many, many people to watch 
over you in the past. This has hardly been your first time, although I wish it 
were your last. Why don't we all just give up on the pretenses of angst for the 
night, and feed you?" Glancing to Erine, oddly as if waiting for a permission to 
end this part of the conversation, she adds, "And then we can move you to a 
decent bunk in the medical labs, and be done with this all-too-familiar song and 
dance."

Erine nods, dismissing the lot of this sitaution with a faint gesture of a hand, 
"Enough fretting over this If and that But and this 'But you don't understand', 
then."  A brilliance of a smile and she turns her gaze back to Talon, voice once 
again in  half a conversational tone.  They could be having a tea party for all 
the casual calmness to her voice, "Are you hungry at all?"

Talon nods at Erines question, he begins to rise after slowly moving out of the 
corner and un curling himself.

Luka nods to Erine's conclusion, leaning around her to signal to the guards. 
"Will you promise to stop throwing fits around the other scientists, Talon? I 
would hope that she and I," she gestures to Erine with her hand, the other 
supporting her against the wall, "will not have to come down here to see how you 
are doing on a regular basis. Or would you prefer that?" she asks mildly, a hint 
of her earlier acidic cheer in the words. "Here we are. Some soup and a roll for 
now."

Erine merely smiles in response.. It seems there's not much else she -would- do, 
no matter the situation on hand, "See?  Calm down and stop worrying so much!  
It'll be okay."  If it was anyone else, it would seem like she was cooing to a 
frightened child or animal.  But.. This is Erine, "And as much as you may prefer 
our company, really.  There are more efficient things to be done for all of us."

Talon watches the small amount of food be broght in, he stands there simply 
watching it be placed on a flat surface.

Luka checks her watch. "You're right..." she sighs, closing the timepiece's 
cover. She glances up to Talon. "Now... you know me, Talon. Or at least enough 
to realize that, if I hear reports of the scientists here being terrified again, 
or that you are refusing food or making trouble in any other way..." Smiling in 
perfect counterpoint to Erine, she only shakes her head in admonishment.

"....Then we'll just have to come back!"  A chime of a phrase and a quaint 
little smile that seems never-paling on Erine's expressions, "Although, you 
know, we'd really rather not.  Needing company is one thing, but being 
unnecessarily unpleasant and requiring it is another.  Really, I mean...  It 
can't be the most fun here, but you really should be more considerate.  Or at 
least efficient.." For such a happy woman, it seems thats a favored word and 
subject.  But all said with a smile.

Talon moves to where the soup is set, "I know."

Luka shakes her head, stifling a yawn. "There... that's not nearly as bad as it 
could be, is it?" Turning to Erine, she asks, "Should I just take you down now, 
or did you want to stay on Jah's spare bed?"

Erine shakes her head weakly, "As appreciated as it is, I do have some business 
to attend to.  Really important, too,  I fear."  Its noted so calmly, happilly 
that you'd think that she was to attend to a wedding, rather than the more 
grimmer nature of her Etone possition, "If its not too much of a trouble, that 
is?"

Luka waves to Talon, turning and leaving with Erine.