Welcome to Gaia! ::

"My mother wanted me to whore myself out for the family. I loved her anyways. The Blood Moon stripped bits of my soul little by little. I loved them anyway. I'm just saying that even if it feels like family, that doesn't mean it isn't an unhealthy place to be. Or a good one."

Jada's voice was tired, and sometimes it felt like her soul was too. Especially in a moment like this one. She let her head fall back, staring up at the roof in silence, listening to the sound of his voice, and the clatter of bone. That couldn't be sanitary, and she'd quite a few concerns about disrespecting the dead, but hell- what was anyone going to do about it now?

"You're right, though. There are lots of things I wish were stripped." I wish I didn't remember that my sister and my mother were killed because of me. I wish I didn't remember how broken you looked, curled up in a prison. I wish I didn't remember the way it felt, having antlers stabbed into my midsection, tearing me to bits. I wish I didn't remember dreams of watching people I care about executed by the Negaverse, or remember the life of a woman who is a thousand times more needed than me. I wish I didn't remember Zora's face, staring down at the man she'd murdered to save my life. I wish I didn't remember his face- the one I killed to save Leto, and the way his slippers looked, smudged in the dirt.

Jada took the out offered by conversation regarding the Code and ran with it, feeling her neck stretch oddly as she leaned firther back, eyes finding a pattern on the ceiling and running with it. Her voice felt stretched when at last she spoke."If the Code pieces are connected, and there are other people in the Negaverse in your prior situation- corrupted, by choice or on purpose- what do you think the Code is doing in that case? You say it can deny you its power, then why doesn't it just give it to someone who would use it? Why wouldn't it protect itself, instead of... screwing over all the other Knights?" it didn't make sense, if the power was that sentient.

And it was easier to think about than the litany of things she didn't want to remember, the surface of which had only been scratched.

Well that sounded like some knightly bullshit. Scylla made a noise of mild disgust in the general direction of the Code, and then sighed, reaching out to accept a swig of the bottle. Her cocoa was set down first, of course, somewhere safely out of range of being accidentally knocked over if she decided to knee-jerk drop kick whatever assholery caused the Code to decide that it was willing to get dusted on instead of fighting dirty.Magic Space Bullshit sounded legit, as far as knight powers seemed to go, and not for the first time, she was... a little bit glad she was a senshi, and not a Knight.

"Left alone and not abused," she agreed as she lifted the bottle to her lips, raising her head before taking a swig. Oh- oh gods. Her confident swig turned into a cough, and she glared down at the bottle, betrayed. "Not all the knights are left alone here. Scholomance had mentioned once, vaguely... his ancestor could talk to him? Or insinuated there was something there." It was plausible she'd completely misunderstood, but...

Ugh. This really was the worst-- "I'm buying you better booze."

Jada had never been married, but she could imagine some pretty bad husbands. She wasn't sure talking was one of the things that could make or break a marriage, but she was going to trust the exaggeration in the spirit which she thought it was meant- and winced. Technically, she supposed her planet tried to talk to her- dropping her in odd places, letting her know when it was mad, not listening to her when she wanted to teleport someplace specific on Wednesdays...

He seemed to find amusement in her suffering, and so she stuck her tongue out at him childishly, nose wrinkling. "At least you didn't spend money on it," Scylla decided after a moment, "That would have been an utter waste." At least in her opinion. She supposed, though, if you were drinking just to get drunk, that this rotgut bottle of... whatever it was... would do just nicely. She passed it back carefully, eyes moving to stare at him for a while.

He'd changed- somewhat. There were similarities, to the boy she'd first met all those years ago. The eyepatch, the heeled boots, the uniform even seemed to look similar, minus a few details changing- symbols of Ganymede, perhaps, or Gevaudan itself? The color scheme, so firmly at odds with her memories. His bitterness worried her, honestly. Daphne had seemed to feel the same, sometimes, in those moments they'd spoken. The sacrifice Audrey had made for love- for Elzo- hadn't been enough to keep her from being recorrupted. And Jada still didn't know if her friend had just... left her behind, or if she'd not had a choice.

"I don't have an answer for that, Gev." her voice was soft, but ripe with affection. "I can't decide if it's worth it to try and renovate, but I can tell you nothing will improve if you don't. I can't tell you what good will come of it because I can't see the future. I can tell you if it is feeling useless, then why the hell not give it a try? I wouldn't make you do it alone, either- I know how to clean."

Kind of.

"Worst case scenario you 'waste' time you were already wasting. Best case, you find something useful."

"If it cost you nothing, then I'd say it's been a zero-sum game with the chance for one hell of a payout, not being used. If it was something you were going to do anyway, same thing." Scylla's rebuttal was gentle, but quick, and her smile was warm.

"Doesn't every chance start with giving something up? Falling in love- you don't know how it will end. Sometimes it will feel great, and sometimes it will hurt, but you learn and get stronger from it. Learning to throw a punch- trusting your body when it said you could probably hit harder than a little tap." He laid out next to her on the bench and she reached out for him on instinct, to run her fingers over his hair. "Jumping off a building, when you were first powered? Did we really know what we could do, in those days?"

She tilted her head to peer at him, considering. "You're a little different to me," she said finally, after a short moment, "but not in a bad way. You still challenge me, make me think about my actions. Where I see myself in this, and where I want to see myself. You're... maybe more recalcitrant, now?" her lips quirked. "Getting out of the military might do that, though. You're perhaps... a bit more likely to think before you move, from what little we've been together. But how much of that is you and how much is the realization you don't have a youma meat shield at your back, I couldn't say."

He seemed bothered by the difference, though, and that concerned her- Scylla scooted closer to him, letting her body lean sideways, to try and bump shoulders with him, and lean her weight there. "Everyone changes though. Life does that. Yeah, there was some magical mcfu--kery, but time would have made changes too. I'm different than you remember, aren't I?"