Room 618 at the Arms Hotel, Friday Early Evening

[firstofitskind]

His relationship with Verity might be intact, if a little fragile, but there was still some shit going on in his head that Liam needed to figure out. And there was really only one person on the island who had a chance in hell of helping with that.

So it was that he was knocking on Ghanima's door at the hotel, box of pastries from J,GoB in hand, to ask for her assistance.

[ooc: that he went to her for help is okay to mention, but details of their conversation NFB, please!]

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[firstofitskind]

"I need help," Liam repeated. "Last week, I did something- and it, it scares me, and you said before that you can shut the others in your head out when you need to. I need to know how. I need to make sure he can't hurt anyone." The words tumbled out, desperate, and he followed it up with a small: "Please."

[atreideslioness]

"Ah." Ghanima closed her eyes for a moment. "I know something of that."

There were many, many monsters in her bloodline, and Ghanima counted herself in their number.

She set the pastries down on one of the low tables, moving towards the kitchenette to start the tea. "What is it that happened to scare you so?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam took a deep breath.

"The Kimera- they were energy-based, lacking corporeal form of their own," he began, figuring he ought to start at, well. The beginning. "In order to study other races undetected, they developed a way to... copy... a host body. DNA, memories, everything.

"I never thought- I mean, I'm flesh and blood- mostly- it never even occurred to me that it'd be possible for do anything like that. But there was a fight, and I was angry, and afraid, and I guess instinct? Took over. Because suddenly I had another man's face."

It sounded fucking bizarre, he knew. But Ghanima had been living on Fandom Island for years. Surely this wouldn't be the thing to throw her.

[atreideslioness]

Hell, she'd been abducted and impersonated by Skrulls. Shapeshifters were not new.

And while Ghanima herself could not shift her shape, the taking of memories was nothing new. She had done it once before, after all. Because Skrulls.

"Unpleasant, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically, starting the kettle and then getting out two mugs. "When you take their memories. I have only done it once, and I was not particularly careful when I did it to her. Had she lived, I'm rather sure she would never have had a coherent thought again."

"No, that is an untruth. I was very careful with how badly I hurt her, and exactly how much pain I caused, because I was so very angry. We call it The Sharing. When done between two willingly, it can be a source of joy and knowledge. Unwillingly? Well. The stronger will prevails."

[firstofitskind]

Liam looked down at his palms, the red mark of the shaqarava there.

"It wasn't like any Sharing I'd ever experienced," because of course they'd have the same name for a similar concept. With everything else they had in common, why not this too? "I don't know if it hurt him," Liam admitted. Then, fiercely: "I hope it did."

[atreideslioness]

"It can be a wonderful tool," Ghanima agreed. "Though having unpleasant people rattling around in your head until they sit down and behave is maddening on a good day."

She prepared the teapot, as the kettle started to whistle. "He is the one you're afraid of...taking over? Getting out?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded. "I can't stop reliving them, his memories."

[atreideslioness]

"Yet here you are, and that is not a decision he would have made," she pointed out, pouring the hot water into the teapot, then bringing it and the mugs over to where she had left the pastries. "You are in control, in this space, and that is a very good first step."

[firstofitskind]

Another nod. “Verity said something similar,” he acknowledged. She’d reminded him that what he felt about Robert’s actions was the polar opposite of the Covenant agent’s.

[atreideslioness]

"Perhaps simply reminding yourself to ask why if you start to agree with them on anything may be a successful solution," Ghanima suggested, settling down and pouring herself some tea. "I cannot imagine that the Kimera would have used that ability so frequently if there was the chance of madness or getting lost in your host."

"As I cannot Share with you to check... I believe the next best option for your peace of mind would be training."

[firstofitskind]

You’d be surprised, Ghanima. The actions that caused the eventual split between Taelons and Jaridians had been caused by a Kimera who had been so caught up in his host’s existence that he’d altered the evolutionary path of an entire species. Liam himself had been created in an attempt to heal that wound. Not that he was going to get in to that just now.

"Training?" he asked, curious.

[atreideslioness]

"Mental discipline, to start. Meditation, puzzles, that sort of thing. And if it helps--" Ghanima couldn't help the slight flicker of a playful smile "--physical training and sparring."

She sees your face, Liam. And the rest of how you're moving.

"To better help you know what thoughts come from you, and what comes from others within you, and to let them pass by with no urge to act."

[firstofitskind]

Liam’s smile at being called out like that was somewhat sheepish, but also the first genuine one he’d managed in days.

“I think... I think that I’d like that,” he said, after mulling it over for a few moments.

[atreideslioness]

"If you're too tired to move, you're too tired to take your murderous voices seriously," Ghanima said cheerfully. "Trust me."

[firstofitskind]

“It seemed like a good idea at the time?”

[atreideslioness]

"If it helped, then it was," she agreed. "Though if you'd like some ice for your face, you're more than welcome to make use of my freezer."

[firstofitskind]

“Yeah, I’m gonna take you up on that,” Liam nodded. Painkilllers weren’t an option, so numbness would have to do.

[atreideslioness]

"Pour yourself some tea," Ghanima said, getting up to go back to the kitchenette. "My mother says it fixes many ills."

Chani was hellbent on adopting Liam. Ghanima knew better than to argue with her mother on this sort of thing.

"--and tell me what set of stairs you threw yourself down to get that face."

[firstofitskind]

"My mother said the same," Liam replied, smiling a little as he fixed himself a cup.

"And it was less 'stairs' and more 'Beau's fists'."

[atreideslioness]

"Ah. Beauregard struck me as someone that's competently combative," Ghanima joked, wrapping an ice pack in a tea towel. "I was paired up with her during one of those date-things."

[firstofitskind]

"She's great," Liam said brightly.

Did he maybe have a bit of a friend-crush on Beau? POSSIBLY. Shh.

[atreideslioness]

"Maybe she should join us for some of the physical training sessions, just to keep you on your toes," she laughed, coming back and offering him the cold pack.

[firstofitskind]

"She did offer to help me keep him in line, with physical force, if necessary," Liam shared.

He took the cold pack gratefully, and just... held it cupped in his hands for a few moments, letting it numb the shaqarava in his palms before holding it up to one side of his face.

[atreideslioness]

"If I see that your skin is not your own, I will do the same," she promised, sitting back down. "Has he caused any problems yet, besides being disconcerting?"

[firstofitskind]

“The memory intrusions are- hard,” Liam admitted. “I can’t stop seeing the things he’d done, to...” he trailed off. But Verity had agreed that if it would help him sort out what was going on in his head, then Ghanima could know about what had happened to her. “He and his- colleagues. Had Verity kidnapped. They tortured her. By the time we found her, she was in really bad shape.” Liam’s tone was broken, halting, as he recounted those events. “That’s when I did... whatever it was that I did.”