Musta Been Fun

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

Mustafar
Mjolnir Space Station
02:23
​

She was home at last.

After fighting in two public places, zakkegs, amongst other things... she was ready to drop dead of sheer exhaustion. Her leg still throbbed; her cheek was still very tender to touch, and everything ached with a thousand unseen bruises, cuts and burns.

She had not yet met up with Tagal; it was early enough that what few staff happened to come across the Deucalian, had yet to come up and talk to her. She knew her children would be excited to see her; no doubt their tutor had many good things to say. She had gotten what she wanted, true, and what they needed, but kark it hurt. She barely managed to stumble into her own chambers and into her own bed when she realized there was still blood all over her armor, practically caked in it actually. She had been almost too tired to navigate back or really clean up.

She simply shed her armor slowly, gritting her teeth whenever a moan threatened to burst free.

The wound on her leg was still bleeding somewhat, but she barely paid it any mind, padding over towards the shower room slowly, shedding off the torn thermal undersuit, then her clothes underneath.

In a rare moment, she twisted the shower knob to hot and let the steam fill the room before stepping in. There was no one here to see her, no one here to witness anything yet.

So she leaned her head against one wall of the stall, and clenched her jaw. Squeezed her eyes shut, and bit back another moan as water sluiced over the wound in her leg, the burns and cuts on her back and shoulders.

But she wouldn't let any sound out, and the water that flowed down the drain was faintly pink. Just one moment of weakness, and then she would be ready to face the galaxy again.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

An automated alert had informed him that Skuld had docked with the space station and that she didn't require immediate assistance. Had she come in with the ship on fire or injured, he would have rushed to drag her to the medical supplies alongside some of the other staff members. But it was late and nothing seemed amiss in the alert so he didn't feel the need to come running as it were.

Instead he paused in what he was doing, painting some detailing using a precision sprayer, and frowned a little bit before deciding to see what kind of state she had dragged herself back in.

Entering her quarters using the code she had given him, the PA system in the room announced he was there even as he stepped inside. Immediately he noticed her armour. Grabbing her damaged chest piece, he tutted a little bit and moved over to the sofa, the 'living area' of her quarters that was around a corner so she would be able to exit the fresher without walking into his line of sight. She would have full privacy to dress herself as he looked over her armour.

"What in the name of every blacksmith God out there did you do to your armour?" he called out to her bluntly as he twirled the precision sprayer around between two fingers like a stylus, "It looks like you got trampled by some kind of animal, got back up and forgot to dust yourself off."

He tutted.

"Did you even USE your buckler shield?"

Honestly, what was the point in a shield if she just took every hit to her torso instead then eh?

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

She was dimly aware of the PA system announcing Tagal, and bit back a groan. She wasn't up for another argument, she didn't want another lecture on personal safety, and she did not want to hear another lecture on running headlong into danger.

She plucked up a towel, trying to dry herself slowly, gingerly, biting back a hiss as she padded it over her leg and shoulder.

Instead of answering, she simply shuffled around in the washroom until she could find the medkit, and slapped on the largest bandage she could find. It would suffice until she could get to the med supply before he would notice. She at least had enough foresight to always keep a set of clean clothes in the washroom the night before; she dressed slowly, exhaling with a wince as she stretched and her back seemed to pop from crown to butt.

She slowly padded out, pulling her long, damp hair off her shoulders, and letting the cooler air prickle over bare flesh. A tank and legging pants was all of it; thankfully, her arms weren't so bad. For a moment, she simply stared at him, then grabbed an elastic and attempted to pull her hair into a ponytail, barely keeping her composure.

"Ja... something like that," she said evenly. He didn't seem to notice the blood yet, though the room was still dimmed low. "I tried to, but it didn't quite work out." Arms crossed, she tried nonchalance, then a grin. "Careful, malmhaus, or others might think you care." It was halfhearted teasing at best. She would not limp in front of him, though.

"I went hunting, is all... and helped out a boy." Perhaps if she remained, leaning on the wall, the throbbing in her leg would go away. But she hadn't expected him arriving so soon. To say it was a bit of a surprise was an understatement.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

Tagal hummed even as he looked over the damage on her chest plate before setting it aside and collecting the rest of her armour as she told her cock and bull story about how she had gone hunting and helped out some kid. Sure, it might be true in the loosest sense of the word but he was damned sure that she was leaving a lot out.

He glanced at her as he brought the rest of the armour over and set it down on the coffee table so he could look it over while she was standing against the wall. She was standing gingerly and even dressed he could tell she was covered in bruises. He frowned deeply.

"Skuld - stop feeding my shite and calling it gravy." he told her mildly as he looked over her armour, "I'm looking over your armour. I'll have a picture in my head of everything you did in the next five minutes so how about you save me from working it out myself and just tell me the whole story?"

He tapped one of her shoulder pads.

"Looks like knife cuts - and something else. Pierced through but was rounded. Some kind of horn?" he raised an eyebrow, "Are you going to explain or should I keep going?"

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

She took a deep breath. Exhaled. And then slowly limped over, setting herself down on the bed once more. She was hoping he wouldn't press, but really, what else did she expect? She didn't want to be poked at, or worried over, but he insisted. She grimaced when she finally did get comfortable, and leaned back on her hands, her expression pensive.

"I was requested by the Empire," she stated bluntly on an exhale. "Yes, those were horns to the leg; karking thing got to me before it got killed. I got two of its' kind with my Elduröxi, though; Zakkegs. Never faced any of their kind beforehand. Said their hides were impenetrable; clearly they never met a Deucalian ax." She chuckled weakly, then sighed, slowly leaning forward to lace her fingers together. She tried to put her elbow on her left knee, and winced at the pressure, but remained as she was. Her right arm was also moved very gingerly.

"Ja, knife... blaster... shot at, stabbed. Helped this same kid on two other missions; one where we were shot at in a bar. And one where we attacked them back." She shrugged, ignoring the pain that rolled from her bicep down her spine at the blaster burn. "Couldn't kill me... I did use the buckler, but they like aiming at necks and backs." This was stated matter-of-factly, as though facing down death really had no influence for her, and she couldn't be bothered to really care.

"It was not bad; we got what we needed, and now I am here." Mostly intact, she nearly added, but didn't, instead waited for the inevitable lecture, or something to that effect. It was just a matter of time, really, so she just held his eyes and didn't flinch, fingers still laced together and still with elbows propped on her knees.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

She seemed to have accepted that, in short, this was happening. She was going to tell him or he was going to find out - it seemed that she had gone with the least painful option and chosen to just tell him. Took some of the sport out of it but he wasn't going to complain too much. He hummed a little bit when she said she was requested by the Empire.

Unlike many Mandalorians, this was not a 'berserk button' for him. Tagal Saxon loathed the Empire but that hatred was his own and for his own reasons - he didn't care to insist that others share his hatred or get upset when others worked directly for the Empire.

Their credits spent like everyone else's at the end of the day.

One thing that did stand out to him was what she had hunted. Zakkeg were... well they were no joke. Their hides were thick, strong and so infuriatingly almost useless in armour as the scraps of leather and bone were too inflexible to be actually made into something resembling armour.

When she was done, he paused for a moment before speaking.

"You're a karking idiot for fighting zakkegs in melee." he told her bluntly, "They're breathing tanks for the most part and it's likely more luck than judgement you were able to kill them at all."

He took up the precision painting tool and began to spray on her armour's chest plate, just over where her left lung would be.

"To my people, it's something of an achievement. To be able to indulge in something so suicidal and stupid that it goes all the way around and becomes brave again." he tapped her chest plate as he finished up, turning it around so that she could see the stylized Zakkeg's head now proudly displayed in stark white against the black of her armour, "And they wear that on their person as a symbol of honour for a good hunt."

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

He didn't seem too dismayed at her actions... she wasn't certain how exactly to handle that thought. She had expected a true lecture on answering the employment call of an Empire agent... or at least some sort of questioning of sanity. She wasn't happy helping them either, but a job was a job and they needed the credits. And until she could start her own engineering branch, they would have to make do with mercenary work.

Something that she hadn't anticipated stepping back into for quite some time, actually. But credits were credits, and she needed a break before things got too domestic.

She liked living here, but there were times a woman needed breathing room to avoid being smothered. Tagal did not need to be smothered, and she wasn't going to be hanging off his shoulders. And yet...

And yet she needed something to distract her from the soreness of the last few days' journey. Her expression didn't shift at being called an idiot. It wasn't the first time they'd said as much to each other. She merely shrugged with a wry smile, left fingers flexing once before releasing.

"Ja, well... couldn't kill me so easily, even if they tried," she murmured.

She listened patiently, not surprised. Hunting wampas had much the same effect; something big, fierce, and unafraid to smash you to pieces. Hardly a shock by this point.

She slowly got up, stepping in his direction with a hum of thoughtfulness rising out from her lips. She took the chest piece in her left hand slowly, eyeing the symbol with a slight smirk. "Mmm. Honor, hmm? Funny thing." Icy blue eyes flicked up towards his, and she perked one black brow. "Not bad thing, I suppose... but next time, I will not let them charge."

She slowly put the piece back down, eyes still meeting his. "Well, I am home now. What did I miss, Tagal?"

She let the mass of hair drift over her damaged right arm as she kept eye contact, the brow still raised in contemplation.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

Her actions were either brave or stupid or both so he was treating her as both at the same time. He was kind of proud so he wasn't shouting at her about being stupid but he was kind of annoyed since she had been stupid so he wasn't singing her praises either. Instead he just focused on the truth of the matter, not how he felt about those facts. Facts were easy for Tagal but emotions were something of a bother for him.

He raised an eyebrow at her comment.

They both knew that wasn't true - they both knew that a grown Zakkeg could have crushed her skull like an overripe melon with one foot and half of it's body weight. He let her take the chestpiece from his grip and just sat back on the sofa as she looked over it. He grunted.

"Honour is something to cherish and hold yourself to." he told her with a small shrug, "Something you wear to remind yourself of your bravery and of your stupidity."

He chuckled a little bit, looking her over.

"What did you miss? Your children cried a lot. I made the girl up a PT schedule and she liked it. The boy has been trying to learn how to pick locks."

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

She knew she was fortunate.

But when she was caught up in the thrill of the hunt, the heat of battle, all personal safety went by the wayside. All that was left was her and her target. Sometimes she got her mark... but sometimes all she got were the unlucky pull of the draw. Between her left leg and right arm, moving was proving interesting without pain rolling against it; she could ignore it for a time, but soon it would come rushing back.

She smirked at his glib remarks of stupidity and bravery; it was true. When you fought, it wasn't cunning or intelligence at the core of it all. Not when you truly fought with your life on the line, no holds barred.

She carefully stepped around the coffee table, face still in that mask of a smirk. The expression melted, however, at the mention of Frigga and Tyrren. She ached to wrap her arms around them right now, but knew it wasn't a possibility right this moment. It was too early.

She closed her eyes briefly with a sigh as she settled down on the other side of the couch, moving gingerly. The bandage on her leg tightened long enough for her to bite back whatever sound she was going to make... but brushing her right arm against the back portion made her groan softly, shifting to try and get comfortable as best she could.

She could make it another hour, tops, and then she would raid the med supply.

"Is that right?" She chuckled softly, face softening to a glow of pride. For a few moments, she was content to let a few moments tick by, icy blue eyes lost.

"...They'll be fine if anything happens," she muttered softly to herself, left hand idly smoothing over a wrinkle of her leggings. "They are strong... I'm sorry I was gone so long, though." Icy eyes flicked up to meet his, face carefully guarded. "Things happened. The next time I go... you will know where I am."

Suddenly, the serious mood broke when she made a half-hearted attempt at nonchalant teasing. "But you didn't miss me too much, eh? Good, hate to think you would," she smirked, right arm settled into her lap, feet slowly tucked underneath her. By now, the pain was just a buzz in the back of her mind, though it was getting harder and harder to ignore.

Was he planning to stay?

...Did she really want him to?

She knew the answer, but didn't voice it. She didn't want to be treated like something breakable... but for once, she wanted to be treated like someone other than a warrior. She was bone tired, aching and hurting like hell, and needed a strong drink. Sooner rather than later.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

They would be fine if anything happened huh? He wasn't sure where she was getting that idea from. It didn't matter how strong a kid was; a kid was still a kid and a kid was lost without their parents. Tagal had lived well and had grown up with both of his parents there beside him but he had friends who lost their parents to battle or to other causes and he had seen how it had affected them growing up.

"Children still need their mother - regardless of how strong they are." he told her but it wasn't a scolding tone, it was soft and understanding, "I'm sure they have a home with your family and they would never be kicked off my station either. But neither is a substitute for having a mother, especially one they only just managed to get back."

Then she was teasing him.

Tagal stared at her blankly for a moment just to mess with her before smirking.

"Oh, you know, I'd have to go out recruiting for another wild woman to throw axes at people I don't like and work on ships and engineering with me." he joked, "It would be really time consuming so I would much prefer it if you just didn't die, okay?"

He paused for a moment before tapping her chest piece with a knuckle.

"Tell me where you go and what you're doing next time Skuld because armour can break, weapons can jam and allies can falter. Tell me when you're going into danger so I can ride out with you to meet it with you."

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

Huh.

Guess he actually did miss her... what a shock that was. Even more shocking that he could change so quickly... was this the same cool malmhaus she met when getting that pirate loot?

...Maybe. But it was still a surprise.

She smoothed over her surprise by smirking more, both brows raised. But the moment was gone when he seemed to consider something. Her gaze was watchful as he spoke again, letting out a hummed breath. Eyes flicked between the armor and his expression before speaking again, the smirk fading.

"Hmm... all right. I need a strong warrior by my side anyhow, these Empire boys are very... young." And it was true; her experiences with these younger people seemed to be an attribute to putting weapons in hands that were not always trained well. They were each fine fighters, but some still had consciousness, morals they abided by in the heat of battle.

Some battles meant that lives were lost, and they had to accept a certain risk. Perhaps they were... but still. They were impossibly young to fight so hard.

"Next time I go, I guess you may follow," she continued on a dramatized heavy sigh, chuckling. "But..."

She rolled forward onto her knees, putting most of her weight into her right leg and left arm as she did, face tilted to the side with that same smirk to close the distance. "The fight was worth it."

She leaned forward further, as if to kiss him, but instead slipped past him with a smile, still padding out with some effort to control her stride.

"Vait. I will be back."

She just needed to take a quick step out of there. Just enough to grab a pain pill, and then everything would be all right.

But meantime... everything was back to normal, whatever the kark that meant.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

She had worked with the Empire and now she tells him that she had been working with boys? As in unblooded? He wasn't exactly happy that she had been working with the Empire in the first place but this news did nothing to soothe his worries either. He frowned a little bit but nodded all the same.

"Well you'll have me with you - I'm sure you'll make do with that." he joked lightly, "And we can use the boys in the future too. I'm sure we'll come across something that will require cannon fodder at some point in the future."

He hoped they died but that wasn't something to air aloud just now.

Raising an eyebrow when she slipped past him, he looked at her as she left the room. He wasn't sure what she had gone to fetch. He imagined that she had everything she had returned with from the missions but there hadn't been anything new. Standing from his seat he walked over her.

Opening the door, he stuck his head out and caught her just kind of waiting there.

"Skuld."

There was a pause.

"Are you alright?"

He still wasn't great with emotions and such - sue him.

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

At least he was letting her do as she needed to; honestly, if he had tried to bar her from ever truly going out again, she would have gone mad with cabin fever and done ridiculous things. She couldn't, wouldn't ever be the type to sit back and do nothing unless she was dead or insensate. And as far as she was aware, she wasn't dead yet. But the moment she stepped out of that door, she had barely gotten ten steps when she realized something horrific.

She couldn't feel her hand.

She couldn't move her right arm.

It dangled uselessly by her side; it felt like someone was dragging her Elduröxi over and letting it sit right on her bicep. It burned and felt cold... and when she shifted her hair to the side and looked, she swallowed, and closed her eyes.

Exhaled slowly.

Forced herself to look at it again, and gritted her teeth angrily.

Red lines streaked out angrily where the blaster shot had impacted; the hasty kolto patch she'd applied en route hadn't really done the trick this time. She didn't even want to look any longer. It was deep... and it hurt more the longer she glanced at it. Dimly, she was aware that her name was called; she slumped against the wall, tilting her head against it with teeth still gritted.

At least her leg hadn't looked too terrible; she would survive with nothing more than another scar.

But this?

It hadn't healed. In fact, it only got worse.

She turned her head towards Tagal, and gave him a bitter smile. "Nei. I can't feel my arm anymore."

She exhaled slowly, straightening up, left hand clenching into a fist. "I thought it would heal... at least until tomorrow. But now..." She let the words fall. She would not let her anger, her frustration show. It was just a karking limb. But it looked so awful. She felt awful. Both cold and hot, and angry at nothing. Helpless anger and frustration.

But she would remain standing. To show any weakness at all beyond this admission would be unthinkable.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

As he looked at her, Tagal could tell that something was wrong but he wasn't entirely sure what had gone wrong with her just yet. She looked like she was favouring one side but he didn't know the extent of her injuries yet. He approached her when she didn't immediately respond to him saying her name. By the time she mentioned that she couldn't feel her arm anymore, Tagal could see it for himself.

He moved over quickly.

"Shut up and stop looking at it." he barked at her as he approached her, taking her arm firmly but carefully in his hands to inspect it closer, "When were you going to tell me you took a direct hit to your arm? When you let it fester until it stopped your heart or only when it started leaking puss?"

Tagal took a deep breath and stepped around her.

"My workshop." he declared before looking at her expectantly and snapping, "NOW, Skuld!"

Growling, he continued to make his way towards his workshop.

"You're the luckiest idiot in the entire Galaxy. You need to lose your bloody arm and you're currently in the company of a prosthetic specialist. Grab your flask." he ordered her bluntly, "This is going to hurt."

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

Immediately she stood as if to say something. Her eyes sparked ice angrily, and her mouth opened... but nothing came out.

For once, she just didn't want to fight.

Her shoulders slumped forward, and she slowly exhaled, gritting her jaw. She let out a low growl when he gripped her arm, bracing against the wall and saying nothing when he did bark at her. It wasn't as though she had time to look at her wounds every karking expedition! Or that she was going to let pain keep her from fighting on. She knew it was stubborn to have so much pride, perhaps even mindless... but what could she do?

She wasn't a medic, and they didn't have a doc on board.

She drew herself up however, when he began to snap at her. Her voice was surprisingly low, and quiet when she did speak. However, her eyes did not lose their icy sheen.

"...I did not have time to look at it when it happened." Her left hand clenched hard, nails biting into her palm. She struggled to keep her composure, her head, but there was already an ember of helpless anger, and his bellowing was fuel to the fire.

"Nor could I until now, Tagal Saxon. I was busy making sure that I could still walk, and I do not need to be yelled at to know how terrible it is!" She was shaking now, swallowing down the nausea that came with being so angry, the pain like an electric current through her shoulder, down her ribcage and pooling in her stomach.

But she still limped after him, head held high. Let him call her what he wanted; she was still surprised that he reacted quite this strongly. She had never seen him so willing to explode like this; even with the events on Ando Prime, he had not been this...

Alive.

It seemed like the broken man was coming to life again. If she weren't so much in pain, she could appreciate it better.

Her eyes stared into his as she limped along, teeth gritted with withheld rage and frustration. "Ja, I know it will hurt, but get it over with anyways. I can deal with it."

But then... just once, for the first time, she sighed and looked away.

"Let us not fight. I am too tired for that now." So saying, she continued past him, eyes focused on what was ahead. She knew she deserved it.

"Just get it over with."

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

Of all the ways he had expected Skuld to be a fool, this was one way that he honestly had not expected. Sure, there might not have been much time to fix herself up but she had literally been on the ship for days and she hadn't thought to reapply some more kolto? The infect was far enough along that there hadn't been much effort to repair the damage and he wasn't a medic - he didn't have any kind of idea how to undo this much damage.

But as a smith and maker of prosthetics, he didn't need to undo the damage. Instead he would be able to make it so the damage didn't matter because that which was damaged would be replaced instead.

"You had several days in the ship on the way back." he told her bluntly, "Travel from Coruscant to this station takes at least 3 days. Several stops along the way could have healed you for some credits."

Tagal took a deep breath as he tossed some of his tools around before grabbing up a few he knew to be important for what he was going to attempt. He gestured for Skuld to lay down on a table as he draw a thermal scalpel from it's protective casing. He stared at her for a long moment.

"... I'm not going to lie to you Skuld. This is going to hurt."

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

She knew she sounded like an idiot. There was no justifying the damage that had been done, and in all honesty she knew she was foolish in regards to her own life. But why would he truly care? It was all fine and well and good to call her 'his woman'... but it wasn't anything beyond possessiveness. Temporary madness even. Why should he even care if she was like this? It didn't matter to her.

And that was the lie she had told herself over and over.

But flying back was spent with her nearly passing out several times over. Pain was only slightly dulled with pills, and she barely had enough time for a coherent thought. All she wanted was to go home. To breathe, to get cleaned up properly. That was the only thing that kept her together, even when the agony of it became too much.

Home.

A strange concept... she thought she could make it a little while longer, but that last day must have sealed the fate of what was next.

"I know," she responded faintly, jaw clenched, to his blunt talk. Her eyes closed, and she let out one slow exhale.

"...I did not expect it could get so bad so quickly," she muttered huskily, eyes closed. She winced when the arm was moved, placed down away from her body. They needed the credits, she didn't have the luxury of waiting. A whole host of excuses, but none of them could hold water for what was going on. "This patch was meant to hold out, it had only been a day..." she muttered, tilting her head back. Sudden exhaustion finally hit.

Her left hand trembled before she clenched her nails into her palm. She had to focus on what he said, gazing at him and nodding once, features grim.

"Just get it over with, I'll survive."

And she did. She did not let out a sound, but clenched her jaw until her neck ached, slammed her left fist down hard against the durasteel table... but held on to her consciousness. Her breath hissed in and out, but not a sound. Not once did her eyes leave his face. She wanted to see the price of her pride, bitter as it was. She wanted to apologize for dragging him into this.

There were a lot of things she wanted to say, but she would wait until it was over to say them. Now wasn't the time.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

As much as he wanted to continue to berate Skuld for her stupidity, Tagal wasn't a monster and he wasn't really accustomed to dealing with people when they were in pain. When people were in pain he was much more focused on if he could stop that pain. And right now?

Well right now he absolutely could.

Taking the blade, he nodded to Skuld before he started cutting. Alongside the scalpel, he ended up having to use a thermal knife and a thermal saw. All of them were painful so he did his best to hurry up, even though he wasn't sure how well it was working. Gritting his teeth, he finished detaching the arm and began fitting the neural interface that would seal off the stump of her upper arm and start to build connections to her nerve endings.

The way it would do that was very unpleasant and it would take some time.

Sighing a little bit, he moved over to one side where he kept some of his prosthetic. There were only two arms that would fit her for now and neither of them were designed for her but it would probably be best for her to get used to having a prosthetic limb, even if it wasn't the one she ended up with.

He presented the two of them to her, very much aware that she was probably feeling like tiny drills were being stabbed into her nerve endings even now.

"Which one for now?"

The for now was because he really did not intend to see her with one of these basic models for all that long if he could help it.

Spoiler: Arm 1

Spoiler: Arm 2

@Killa Ree

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

By the time he was finally done, she was white-knuckling the edge of the table, feeling a faint blackness tinging the edge of her vision. She didn't know why, but somehow once it was removed the pain suddenly lessened, and she moaned, her tight grip easing.

She was strangely silent when he fitted on the neural attachments; her eyes had taken on a glassy sheen, and when that was over, she sighed and slowly rolled to sit up.

She would not look over, nor touch her shoulder at all. She just wordlessly stared at Tagal. For a second, surprise flickered in those icy blue eyes, as though she were surprised he was even going to retrofit her with one... she honestly expected the usual icy calm, the reserve.

Pain she could live with. Anger she could live with. It was what they had, what they dealt with when they came head to head over minor things, things not worth arguing over and things that meant a fine line of leadership.

But this changed her. She suddenly saw Tagal in a new light... and could appreciate it better.

"The first."

Her lips were a thin line, and there was a look in her eyes. A sudden seriousness that wasn't there before. When he would come closer she caught him by the arm with her left hand. She was still in serious pain, but she could breathe past it now, speak.

"Thank you. I know I was being foolish. But... I trust you. And there will not be next time. But also... I am sorry, for constant arguing. I do not know compromise," with a wry grin and a bitter chuckle.

She sighed, and the next few words were spoken almost too quietly. If asked later, it was a moment of weakness when she spoke, a brief madness or moment where she wasn't herself.

"I am sorry I drag you into this," she muttered, frowning. Her fingers ran into her hair with a heavy sigh, shoulders slumping. "I had no time... I vanted to get back here as quickly as possible, and I am exhausted. I vanted to come home and see my children, and..."

She stopped that thought, and shook her head. "I have nothing else to say. Forgive a fool."

@Nefieslab

 

[Tagal Saxon]

There was something relaxing about fitting a robotic limb.

It was a science, pure and simple, and it meant that he had to focus on what he was doing rather than the circumstances surrounding it. That meant he was able to work on her arm without having to think about how much it sucked that she had lost that arm in the first place. Or how worried he had gotten... yes, those thoughts could be safely ignored while he worked.

He picked up the thinner, more skeletal, arm and began to prep it's receivers at the connection point. As he was testing it out however she spoke and he frowned a little bit. Rolling his eyes, Tagal didn't respond with words.

Instead he pressed the metallic arm to the connection point and took a step back as burning pain would lance through Skuld's entire body as the nerves were wired into the arm's receivers. It was a progress that was incredibly quick but it was far more painful than anything else she had experienced today. Even losing the arm would feel like nothing in comparison to the pain she was feeling as her body was forced to accept the metallic arm as part of it.

He paused until the pain would begin to die down.

"Alright I forgive you now." he told her with a small smirk, "I don't think you'll be doing that again - I think you'll start taking cover more often now that you know how much it hurts to replace."

Or she wouldn't and he would be forced to strap another chunk of metal to her... he wasn't sure he liked that idea at all.

@Killa Ree