Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Polished Bonding

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia got any number of packages from California. Wakiki was always sending her copies of his favorite music; her father would ship her history books and her mother always slipped a card into those packages. But this package wasn't from any of them.

Olivia stared at the name on the return address: A. Sherman. It was his joke; he rarely used his last name, and she wasn't sure what his real first name was. Feeling sad, she signed for the package and took it back to her room.

She opened it there, finding a note on top of packing peanuts. She opened the note and read:

Livy,

I know you, and I know you aren't taking care of yourself. I know you aren't pampering yourself. So I sent you some stuff with which to do so. I want you to use this! I mean it, girlfriend.

And because you'll worry - I'm fine. My doctors are pleased with my changes to my lifestyle. I have found something that makes me very happy - other HIV+ men in the area who are as lonely as me! I have another boyfriend; we'll talk about him next time you're home.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXO

Sherman

P.S. Give all your men kisses for me.

Olivia blinked. "Yikes, don't ask much, do you, Sherm?"

She dug into the box, dumping peanuts across her table. She found a box, a familiar box, and she laughed as she pulled out an identical container to the one that Sherman used for his polishes.

Olivia opened up the box and looked over the polishes that he'd sent her. There were only five colors, but it was the start of a collection. In the bottom tray, there were the tools of the trade - not all the bells and whistles, but enough to get started. Too bad Olivia didn't like painting her nails; it was something she liked to do with other people.

Now that gave her an idea.

[z028 Riley]

The knock on Kyria's door was answered with a distracted, "Hm? Daniel, if that's you, I finished the Ashrin Codex but I'm still going through Dr. Olancar's translation and I want to compare them. I'll bring them to you tomorrow morning, okay? Thanks!"

Livy blinked, both at the casual tone of the young alien's remarks and that the teen would be reading something even she thought was mind-numbingly boring. She knocked again and called out, "Um, it's not Dr. Jackson. It's Livy."

The door opened with alacrity, Kyria's grinning face seeming almost to pop out of nowhere. "Oh, hey! Sorry, he keeps noticing his books are missing, and I think he's finally started catching on to my 'new library' strategy." Her grin was half part mischief, half part boredom, and half part unexpected bookworm. "C'mon in."

Books were everywhere and seemed to be her only method of decoration; the room contained exactly the standard issue military furniture and bedding and nothing else other than the three dozen or so books covering every open surface. She scooped up the three tomes that had taken residence on one of the two chairs in the room and motioned Livy to take a seat. Kyria herself perched on the edge of the bed and asked curiously, "So, what's up?"

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Having seen how Kyria lived, Olivia wasn't sure she'd be interested in this. Only one way to find out. "I got a package from a friend," Olivia started, then held up a hand. "Let me start over. I have a friend who stayed in Berkeley. He's a really good friend, and whenever one of us was upset, we'd get together, paint our nails and talk. Well, he knew I've been having issues here, and so he sent me the tools I needed to pamper myself. But I don't want to do it alone."

She opened up the box, the bottles of polish shining like wet jewels. "So... I was wondering if you'd like to have your nails painted, and bitch with me." Seeing the look on the girl's face, she added, "You know, about the General, SGC, the dicks, our COs, the stupid boys... you know. Life."

[z028 Riley]

Kyria glanced a little blankly down at her nails and then back up a Olivia, and then in the universal language of girls, peered into the box and asked, "What colors do you have?"

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"Not many," Olivia admitted. The two looked at the colors, compared them to their skin tones and soon Olivia was putting down a base coat for Kyria. "So," she said easily, feeling as if Sherman were right there with her, "you have to put this coat down, then let it dry." She smiled, finding a strange comfort in something she'd always found a little silly. "So while we wait, tell me about you. I don't know much about you, Kyria, and I feel like I should, as another female Specialist. Sisterhood and all that."

[z028 Riley]

The base coat seemed to fascinate Kyria for a moment, then she glanced up at Olivia's question, her eyes widening just a bit. "Oh....um....what do you want to know? I was born on To Doro."

"The gift?" Livy asked, easily translating the simple Greek.

Kyria nodded, "A friend of my father's made it for him as a thank you for...well, it's a long story. And complicated. And really really boring when you don't know all the people involved. Anyways, I was...born there. Actually I spent most of my life there. I could count the number of times I actually left the island before...before Lorian and everything, on one hand. It seems so weird now. I guess that's why I feel so cooped up here. It's even smaller than the island and I've gotten to leave even less."

She inspected her nails, frowning a little that they weren't already dry, and glanced over at Livy, "What about you? Where'd you grow up?"

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia glanced up from her silent debate about which color to use. The dusty rose color in her left hand was nice, but Olivia always found it hard to say no to a nice rich burgundy. "I grew up in Northern California... you know our geography, right?" Kyria nodded. "Berkeley is near San Francisco. But I've traveled all over - Africa, Asia, Europe, even the Middle East.

"Who's Lorian?"

[z028 Riley]

"Lorian....was...is...hmn. Lorian was a ship and a person. I guess she's a person and a Watcher now. She was the ship for the Paragons and kind of like the secret Paragon member. Sort of like my father, only big and able to fly through space and jump dimensional lines."

The girl smiled at a happy memory, watching curiously as the other woman started in on her nails with the chosen color. "She used to open up the airlock and let me sit outside the hydroponic gardens and watch the stars go by. It was nice. And very very quiet. Good for thinking. Where did'ya like best? In all the traveling you did?"

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia was stunned by the casual discussion of ships being people. She'd known that Kyria came from a strange world, but this was amazing. She let her brain work on what the girl had said while she answered her later question. "I liked home, honestly," she said honestly. When chatting with your polish buddy like this, honesty was vital. No lying to your girlfriends. "Home was..." She stopped and looked at Kyria. "I don't know your situation, but let me explain a bit about mine."

She leaned sideways to see the edge of Kyria's nail better. "Race still matters around here, to some people. My mother and father are both minorities, so I get the double whammy. I'm black and Asian, and a little white, too. So when I'm in Japan, I'm not them, despite being half-Japanese. When I'm in Africa, I'm not them, despite being nearly half-African American. When I was in Kuwait, I was a woman. And I don't look like I belong anywhere in Europe. But in America, I'm just as mixed as anyone else. And in Berkeley, no one cares what I look like, so long as I'm 'chill'. So as much fun as traveling is, I get really tired of being stared at."

She glanced at Kyria. "Can you tell me more about Lorian and the Watchers? I'm not at all familiar with what you're talking about."

[z028 Riley]

She shrugged, "Not really. I mean, a little, but we didn't stick around with the Watchers all that much. They're half the reason I'm here though. Apparently there was this nova that could travel through time and clone himself. He went way back in time on his Earth and spent all his time figuring out how to manipulate quantum and become more powerful. And he made these clones of himself that stuck, y'know? They didn't dissapate after a while like most q-clones usually do. Or at least he figured out how to keep them from poofing while he was learning everything else. Eventually they became their own people, but being based off him, they all did the same basic things. They played with their quantum and their potential as novas and became more powerful. Eventually there really wasn't anything they couldn't do. So they started making bits and pieces of themselves that didn't know what they were, and went out exploring and watching all the different possibilities. All the different ways things could be. Hence why we called them the Watchers. They also started creating other possibilities that they liked. They became gods or something more than that. Creators, at least."

Livy could feel the shiver chase through Kyria's body. "I guess that's what my father's going for eventually, too. I'll probably end up like that too. I mean, he made sure I-" her voice drifted off for a moment and she stared at the floor. Somewhere in the depth of her mind she made a choice; if she wanted friends, people she could trust, then she'd have to start trusting at some point. And Livy had shared how she was different from everyone else even when she was a baseline.

She looked back up, into Livy's eyes, "I'm not like anyone, Livy. I mean, you all, the Specialists, you feel a little different than natural novas, but I'm even different from Omar. It's not just that he erupted from being a baseline and my parents were novas. I-I wasn't born. My father created me, not like the clone novas, though. He had someone he loved, who didn't -wouldn't- ever love him back. So he...well, I guess he stole some of his DNA, and made me from both of them. He...adjusted me, though. Made it so that I would be better than even the children born naturally from nova parents."

She took a breath. It wasn't fair to dump all this on Livy, but she'd felt so alone since she'd walked away from the life her father had planned for her and the world she'd been raised to rule. In many ways, she was still just another teenager trying to figure herself out. "I don't get taint. That was what he wanted the most for me I think, to make sure that however long I lived or however powerful I got, I'd never have to worry about that. Then again, he may just have wanted to make sure I would be suitable to interact with baselines and novas and psiads alike without scaring them just by existing." She let out a laugh that was half bitter, "People never really get it when I say I don't have a mother."

She blushed then, realizing that this might be a little much for nail polish conversation. She really wasn't sure what was normal for this kind of thing, but she didn't want to run off the first person on this new world that could be her friend and maybe even understand. Daniel was fun, and way wiser than any other baseline she'd ever met, and Sam was smart in the way that Daniel was wise, but they were still baselines and busy most of the time. They checked in on her occasionally to make sure she was doing okay (and to spy for the general and snag books back), but she wasn't one of them they way most of the SGC teams were. She wasn't even that way with her own team.

"Sorry," she muttered, "I-I kinda went on there."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia stared at Kyria for a second after she'd finished, trying to grasp the import of what the younger woman had just told her. "Oh, wow," she said quickly, trying to assimilate all that. "So some guy stole DNA and mixed it with his, and engaged in eugenics? Man, that's... so messed up." Her dark eyes widened and jumped to meet Kyria's quickly. "I don't mean that against you," she added firmly. "You did nothing wrong, but I have real issues with what was done to you. It was very unfair of your... father to do what he did."

Olivia forced herself to calm down; one of the things she'd always rallied against - because it seemed like such a dangerous idea her - was genetic modification. When it was done to their food supply, it was bad enough, but when done to a baby, it was enraging. It was hard to stop talking about it, but she managed to say, "I can understand him preserving you from Taint, but it's still not right to just change things because they're inconvenient." Losing Declan won't be inconvenient. It will be devastating. The worry and sorrow that crossed her face was telling to the perceptive Kyria; Olivia knew about Taint and already feared what it would do to her.

She straightened and capped the bottle. "Let that dry, then we'll do a final coat.

"And don't worry about talking," Olivia said softly, "that's what this is for. Want me to go on for a bit about something?" She gave Kyria a wry grin as she asked.

[z028 Riley]

"Sure."

Her eyes were downcast, ostensibly to look at her nails, but there was a shyness to her now that hadn't been there before. Olivia would learn. Taint wasn't inconvenient. It was damning. Kyria remembered a paper she'd read once, an opposition piece released by a small group of 'human supremacists' in 1940's that had argued that taint was nature's way of telling humanity that nova evolution was a dead end, and that the best course of action for the race was eugenics. They advocated for research into identifying the 'nova' gene and banning anyone that carried it from reproducing. Needless to say, they'd been ignored, but she'd never really been able to blame them for their fear. After all, her father was doing everything in his considerable power to find a cure for taint and the aberrations it caused, and he wasn't one for petty projects.

She reflected that it might do her good to learn more about this artifact that made people into novas. The people who made it surely knew more about it than the SGC did, and maybe they had found an answer to the problem of Taint like Andrew had. If only they had a way to contact him, he could solve this in a matter of weeks.

She pulled herself out of her reverie and tuned back in to what Olivia saying.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"Sure," Olivia said, surprised that Kyria actually wanted her to talk. She's uncomfortable, so she wants the focus to be on you, not her. Olivia almost asked whether becoming a specialist was the reason she seemed to be a boy magnet, but opted to not put pressure on her to answer questions at the moment. "Ok..."

She thought for a moment, and then said, "Well, I have had an issue since becoming a specialist. There are a... a lot of men becoming interested in me. It's kinda weird, and I'm not sure how to take it. I never had this kind of attention... well, when I was in college, but after... after I dropped out, all the attention kinda went away." When they somehow knew what I'd done, and that I was a bad woman. "And then the Artifact, and suddenly I'm beating them off with sticks. And the one that I really thought I'd get along with seems to love to pick my brain, but nothing else." She sighed. "And none of the guys who seem to be my type seem interested."

She gave a wry smile. "Figures that the type of guys that turn me off physically are the ones that seem to want me, right?"

[z028 Riley]

"Who's that? The one that picks your brain, I mean." She wanted to bring up Caine's visit to her room, but it didn't seem like the best subject to keep the conversation going, so she opted for the minor mystery first. "I don't know all the much about guys, I have to admit. The only boyfriend I ever had opted for merging with the Watchers on Avalon, and before that...well...it was very mental relationship. I'm not really sure what it'd be like to date someone or like someone and not be able to know what they were thinking or if they liked you back."

The slow blush creeping up her cheeks was a pretty clear indication that she wasn't saying the relationship was crazy, or that it was only focused on the mind.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia would have been clearly blushing if she wasn't so dark-toned. Grinning a bit sheepishly, she softly said, "Daniel, Dr. Jackson. I mean, I admired him long before I met him. He's so smart, and so amazing..." Her voice trailed off as she looked a little embarrassed. "I sometimes feel like I have a crush on the President or a movie actor, you know. It's Daniel Jackson."

She forced herself to stop gushing and listen to Kyria. "Well, as a telepath, you don't have to worry about dating someone and not knowing, but to be honest, it still works. It's a lot more frightening," Olivia admitted. "You have to try to guess. But there's something incredibly wonderful about approaching someone and having them be receptive to your feelings." Her face fell a little as she talked.

[z028 Riley]

Her grin matched Livy's as she trailed off on thoughts of the good doctor. "He is cute. And, I don't know, different than any other baseline I've known. If you like him, have you tried asking him out?"

She could tell there was an entire encyclopedia of history she was missing from Livy's past, but ever so slowly Kyria was starting to learn the concept of privacy. So instead of poking around she thought about what she knew and the conversation she'd recently had with Livy's CO, and figured she had at least a little idea of what might be bringing her friend down.

She leaned in conspiratorially towards her, "I have to admit, boredom isn't the only reason I filch books from him. Once the rest of you showed up, Omar and I weren't the newest crisis to deal with and SG1 went and got all busy with their jobs." Her betrayed countenance was quickly marred by giggles.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia looked down, a flicker of hesitation and, oddly, shame on her face. "No, I haven't asked him," she replied. "He's... too far above me. And I've never seen any sign of interest from him toward me. Besides," she forced a grin, "if I'm the hot, female Daniel Jackson, wouldn't that be like dating myself?"

Oh, yes, she'd heard the whispers. People didn't realize just how good her hearing was, and she heard what they said when they thought she couldn't. She tried not to eavesdrop, but it was hard when the conversation traveled to her ear.

She smiled at Kyria, her expression actually managing to be friendly instead of bitterly jealous. "You should ask him out," she said. "If I can't have him, I'd like one of my girlfriends to nab him."

[z028 Riley]

"I"d say more it makes you two sound like you're made for each other. And as cute as he is, I just don't know that I could date a baseline. I'd always have to be so careful around him, make sure I didn't hurt him on accident, and then what about the age difference? I'm already like half his age and I'd live way longer than him. It hurt enough when Cody left, I'm not sure that I could handle something like that again, especially when it wouldn't be him going off to some other kind of existence."

She looked thoughtful for a minute, "Although I have heard people thinking about the fact the Dr. Jackson has...mmm, what's the word....ascended? Do you know something about that?"

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"I... I'm not made for him," Olivia said. Not nearly good enough for him. "A... baseline? That's what you call humans? Well, wouldn't the right baseline be worth the effort? And wouldn't I have the same problem, maybe someday, please?" She clasped her hands in mock prayer; it was really hard to be so weak among giants.

"Ascension," Olivia added quickly, glad of the subject change, "is when humans become more than human. I haven't read the reports on it, but you shed your body and become living energy of some kind. You gain immortality and powers and go to a higher plane of existence. He Ascended, and then came back. I'm still working on those reports, so I don't have the details yet, just the basics."

[z028 Riley]

"Huh. Weird. I've read about novas that could turn themselves into energy, but I get the feeling that this is something different, because Dr. Jackson is definitely a baseline. I kinda gave up on the reports. Most of them are boring. I have it on pretty good authority that all the really interesting ones are classified." She inspected her nails again, wondering if they were done yet.

"As for a longer lifespan, that's actually something you can work on. Your quantum responds to you and the things you do in life. Stretching your physical limitations and exposing yourself, carefully, to toxic or dangerous environments should help train you quantum expressions towards healing and repair of you body. And aging is nothing less the than the breakdown of your body's ability to clear out toxins and repair cells. Say like doing endurance training in the pool or taking small doses of poisons to build up immunities."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"Can you smell the polish?" Olivia asked, then stopped. "Crap, no that doesn't work... for baselines, it's dry when you can't smell the polish anymore. I can smell it long after it dies. I need someone to mix me up a scent-free nail polish."

She looked at the girl for a moment, realizing that Kyria was right about the age that she'd been during her ill-fated trip to Kuwait. She quickly turned her thoughts away from that. Too many bad memories, too many mistakes: she'd been young and stupid.

"I find all the files interesting," Olivia admitted, knowing that made her a giant geek. Of course, her clearance was probably higher than Kyria's.

"I'm not sure... I'm not physically powerful like the others. Poison would probably poison me. I have gotten stronger, slowly, over time. But that's just from being in better shape, period."

[z028 Riley]

She crinkled her nose at her fingetips, "Yeah, I can still smell it. And the point would be to stress your body some, make it sweat physically to get it moving in the right direction with your quantum. If the poison idea isn't okay, just try like endurance training in the pool. I like going there to think, so you'd probably have someone to hang out with and make sure you were okay."

She frowned, then shrugged to herself, "Not to kill the good mood or anything, but you and I do need to talk about Declan." She let that hang there, hoping Livy would be open to the conversation. She was worried about a number of things going on in the base, but none of them had the potential for disaster like the Sargent.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia blushed, then caught her tone and paled a little. "Right," she said softly. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions about what is going on there. So... ask."

"What is your opinion of his mental state?" Kyria asked.

Olivia sighed. "He's shattered into two personalities. One is his violence and anger, the other is his... passivity and indecision. Between them lies who he was and should be again."

The next question made Olivia blush again, her cheeks darkening. "What is going on with this conditioning?"

"He has, naturally, two 'high stress' states. One is his attack state, which has been taken over and is now 'Red'. The other is an arousal state, which seems to still be controlled by Declan. I've been evoking the other arousal state - not like that - and conditioning it to a trigger word. It was supposed to pull Declan out of the fight state and flip into arousal. The idea is to do what you do for him. In time, I want him to self-trigger. Eventually, I want him to integrate Red back in... but from what Omar said, that's not going to help, is it?"

"Let's finish my questions," Kyria said evenly. "How effective do you think it is?"

"Just a couple of sessions were enough to shut Red down once," Olivia said. "Offhand, that means it works pretty well. I'm not pushing it yet. I'm trying to also deal with Red as an entity in his own right, which means talking to him and being... well, his friend."

He loves me.

Olivia jerked as she heard her own stray thought, her eyes flying to Kyria to see if she'd heard that. "Kinda using honey instead of a stick."

"Do you have any psychological training?" Kyria asked.

Olivia sighed. "I had to take some courses in college. Basic stuff," she admitted.

Kyria was quiet for a moment. "What do you think we should do?"

"Help him," Olivia said, and there was true pleading in her voice. "Whatever it takes. I won't let them lock him up or put him down." For the first time, Kyria saw a core of determined steel in the other woman's eyes, peeking from behind the passive, non-assuming look was her norm.

[z028 Riley]

She nodded, relieved to hear the determination in Livy's voice; if they had any chance of helping Declan, it wasn't going to be a quick or easy process.

"I'd like to help with this conditioning. More than anything, what Declan and Red both lack right now is control. If this split is a result of taint, then it's not likely we'll be able to put him back together completely unless we can discover, create, or somehow get our hands on a cure for taint here. That means that both Red and Declan are, more than likely, stuck with each other for a long time. They need ground rules and ways of dealing with each other. What happened in the cafeteria, that was Declan using Red so he didn't have to deal with something painful. That's just as damaging to them as Red wresting control from Declan and picking fights."

She watched Olivia's reactions to her words carefully. "What you've done so far, I think it works because both Red and Declan want it to work. That's not strong enough yet. We need something that works because it works; something that the rest of your team can use to let Declan or Red know that whoever's in charge is inappropriate or making the situation more dangerous. Not a control switch, or the two of them will never work that part out on their own, but a warning system. A mental bell for them to hear and know they need to think instead of act. Do you think it would be okay for me to join you when you do this conditioning? I can be there only in mind, if that would make you more comfortable, since my reason for being there is monitor what is actually going on in Declan's mind."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"If it will help," Olivia said, feeling her heart sink. Kyria was just so pretty now. For a second, she wanted nothing more than to keep what she had with Declan private. It was her idea and her Declan - and being possessive of him wouldn't help him. She couldn't express that to Kyria, because she couldn't feel like that about her teammate. "We need to ask him first, though."

There was an odd sliver of hope there, that he'd be too embarrassed to allow Kyria to see his innermost thoughts while Olivia touched him. But if he agreed, both of their feelings would be laid bare. Olivia wasn't sure what would happen then, at all. Would Kyria keep their secret?

Would she risk losing Declan as a teammate and to Kyria if it meant him gaining control over his life?

Yes.

It would be one more loss, but it was acceptable. "What do we need to change about what Declan and I do for the conditioning? I'm open to suggestions."

[z028 Riley]

"I don't know. I hope if I can see what's going on in his mind when it happens, then I'll have some idea. I haven't even had college courses on psychology, Livy. I'm more blind in this than you, but I can show you exactly what's happening and make it so that we can talk to both of them at once."

She tapped one of her fingernails to test it for dryness, nodding in satisfaction as it returned a chitinous-like sound. She stared at the color for a long moment, "And you can trust me. I know what's at stake and at least a little of what's going on from Declan's side. If I was going to cause a problem or go running to the powers that be, I would have already, but they're less equipped to deal with this than we are. I want to help."

Her eyes pleaded with her friend to believe that.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia stared at her for a moment, then dropped her eyes. "If you're going to be involved, then... there's more. More going on than just therapy for Declan," she admitted, her eyes fastening on the bottle of burgundy nail polish still in her hand. "He... did something for me, something that I haven't been able to do for... seven, eight years? He was able for me to be comfortable alone with a man who could easily overwhelm me physically." Her eyes shot back up to Kryia's. "If you're in my head right now, please leave. I don't want you to see what's going on in there." She smiled, a touch bitterly. "I'll tell you, but I don't want you to see." It was a small thing, but important.

"I was assaulted... a while ago," Olivia said after a moment, unsure if Kyria was in there or not. It felt strange to say the words, to let them go after all this time. "I've never really been comfortable with men after that, but with Declan, I am. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I've spent so much time training with him, and I trust him, really trust him, like I haven't been able to trust a guy since... my boyfriend in college. Before he abandoned me."

She was trying not to cry; she wasn't sure how successful she was going to be. Thinking about Bill wasn't helping, so she shoved those thoughts away. "And anyway, just because this needed to be more complicated, because I'm the only woman his age who'll spend any time with him, Declan's develop some deep feelings for me. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they were there before the conditioning. Just hints that I didn't realize were significant before have become clear. Anyway, just another layer of complexity, but I thought you should know about it."

[z028 Riley]

"I caught some of it the other day, when I spoke with him and Red about Red's behavior in the cafeteria. That whole incident is why I brought this up. And Livy, I won't go rooting through your head unless you want me to. You're one of the few people here with some mental shielding, so I shouldn't pick up any stray thoughts from you either. Most of what I've known here was from Declan, and the only reason I was looking in his head was because of everything else."

She put a hand on the other woman's shoulder and squeezed. "I know I'm not always the best at boundaries and stuff, but I'm learning. I'm trying."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"I didn't mean... you just... I'm sorry, I must have been broadcasting my concerns about what you'd do with this knowledge," Olivia said hesitantly. "You seemed to be reading my mind." She frowned and said, "I have mental shielding? I didn't know that." She smiled, looking a little relieved. "I'm really glad to hear that, though I'm not sure why I have that ability. I don't have any mental powers - or any powers."

She paused and some of her temporary good humor faded. "We should probably bring Declan in now," she said softly, wondering how this was going to go.

[z028 Riley]

"Not everything I know comes from picking it out of other people's heads, y'know. I can read faces sometimes, or just know how I'd feel in their situation." She was smiling back, but there was a little hurt in her voice. It wasn't directed towards Olivia personally; it was just a small venting of a minor vexation with the world.

"Alright. Do you want to go find him, or call for him, or what? I'm not sure where he is right now, but between the two of us we should be able to track him down." She bit her lip and smiled a little more freely as she plucked up the 'Deep Plum' bottle. "This seems like it would suit him nicely."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

She giggled. "I agree. That's his color. Hang on, this is the best way," Olivia smiled, picking up her phone. She called Declan's quarters, let him get out his hello, and then said, "Kyria and I would like to talk to you in her quarters. Got some time?"

[The Red Man]

"Uh, sure." came the response in Dec's deep quiet voice. "I'll be right there." Hanging up, he tossed the thick paperback book on ancient civilisations and their mythologies onto the bunk. It was slow going, but much, much higher concept stuff than he'd read before the Artifact. Hell, men's magazines and the newspaper had been about all before.

*Alright! Both ladies desire our presence! Let's get goin', Dec. It's like a double date. Just remember, buddy, you're mackin' for two!*

*Asshole. They're probably goin' to lecture us about the power-sharin' thing after that slip in the cafeteria.*

*So listen, nod, agree, and then suggest a few drinks.* Declan sighed.

*It's not likely that either of them want to get cosy with either of us, Red.*

*Yeah, then why are you headin' to the bathroom mirror? Checkin' out the rugged manly look?*

*No! I'm just... makin' sure you didn't draw on my face while I was asleep.* Dec checked his clothing too, making sure his t-shirt and BDU's didn't have sauce or oil on them.

*Suuuure you were.*

*Fuck off.*

Grumbling slightly to (and at) himself, Dec made his way through the corridors of SGC, arriving outside Kyria's door and, after a brief hesitation, knocking. He smelled... nail varnish?

*I got a bad feelin' about this...*

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia opened the door, and the smell of nail polish was thicker. "Hey, c'mon in," she said, stepping back to let the big man into the room. She didn't look particularly settled or even happy, though she smiled for him.

"The reason we asked you over," she said, as she stepped back over to the cleared spot on the floor, "was to talk about what we can do to help you with the conditioning. She thinks I'm doing it wrong, in a way, but I'll let Kyria explain that to you herself."

Olivia bit her lip, then added, "I've told her a lot. Enough that we can talk pretty freely. About what we've done, what the conditioning has meant for both of us. Not specifics, but... enough." She wasn't looking at him, not really. "I've just tried to get some stuff mentioned so that you didn't have to mention it."

The word for this was awkward.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria was perched on her bed, red nails a stark contrast to her usually natural look. She bit her lip and shook her head, "It's not that I think you're doing something wrong, Livy. I just think I can help to make sure that what's being done is working like it's supposed to."

She waved Declan over to the chairs that had been cleared of books. "I can watch your mind when you two are working on this conditioning and see what's going on. I can also make so that everyone involved can communicate without having to play musical chairs in your mind, Declan." She looked up at him, earnest and concerned. "I want to help."

[The Red Man]

Declan sat down, his face red under the beard and sunglasses. *Ahh shit.*

*Hehehe, she heard that.*

*Crap!*

*Here's a fun game: try not to think of Kyria and Livy naked.* Red leered.

*Oh you asshole!* Various images flickered through Dec's mind as soon as Red made the suggestion. He was aware of his alter-ego's laughter and tried to force himself to concentrate, though his flush deepened.

"Uh... Okay. I guess extra help is good, right?" He looked from Kyria to Olivia hopefully. "I mean, I don't have a problem with it if you don't, Livy." He hesitated, then took his sunglasses off, keeping his eyes low. "I suppose I'm as ready as it gets."

The sergeant's shoulders were bunched tight under the t-shirt, and he was obviously tense and uncomfortable despite his attempt to show willing, his fingers knotting together as he tried to calm himself. *This is just an exercise... and it's Kyria. She's cool. She knows the worst. She was your first friend here.*

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Did she have a problem with it? Yeah, she did, but she wasn't going to stop it when it could help Declan. So she just shook her head and tried to not thinking about sharing this quiet, intimate thing with someone else. "Let's do it," she said. "Anything to help Declan."

She glanced at Kyria. "What are we doing?"

[z028 Riley]

"Well, let's start with what you usually do. I can link us all together and we can take a little time to get used to that, then see what's going on with both Declan and Red mentally from your normal exercises."

She took a breath, then touch the other minds in the room just enough to make a connection from her to them. Then she expanded that, using her own mind as a sort of hub for all four of them communicate in.

*Let me know when you all are ready.*