Let's Start a Riot

Nala felt slightly out of place with a pair of leggings on instead of her traditional hip wrap- she certainly had seen the look Padma had given her for it. She grumbled to herself about that one- but the hip wraps were ornamental- not meant for violent physical activity- and Nala had no desire to ruin her clothes by wearing them despite that. She tied her hair up as she strode down the hallway- letting her nose guide her to the person she needed to speak to.

Knocking on the door frame, Nala waited a moment before entering- just enough time that he might not be surprised by her presence. Though she did doubt that he would have missed her scent. Smiling at Taarus, she ducked her head in greeting as she walked into the room.

She had a favour to ask him- a relatively simple one, though she was uncertain how he'd take it. "Hey Taarus- I was wondering if you'd be willing to spar." She began. "I haven't had a chance to get practice in since before my last mission- and Padma- I'd probably punch in the face, simply because she annoys me- and Jaya has more important things to do." Nala elaborated- completely leaving out Kaalth on that list. She had never even considered him for this- she didn't think he'd be willing to throw even a soft punch in her direction.

Taarus was slightly surprised when the knock was followed by an entry without any response from him, though he didn’t really seem upset. He had scented her, after all, even through the door. He had a suspicion that the air system was meant to carry pheromones to prepare someone before an Orion girl entered the room, but he wasn’t a builder, he couldn’t rightly say, to be honest.

Fresh from the shower in the other room, Taarus reached for the shirt lying on his bed, getting ready to put it on, but not really hurrying to do so. It was something about the air when her scent was in it, it made putting clothes on seem like moving backwards. So, for the moment, he just listened to her, though he frowned slightly as she listed off the other names she’d thought of. “If it’s fighting you need to do, I shouldn’t be the last person you think of,” he pointed out. Granted, she hadn’t named Kaalth, but then… he had qualified it as ‘people,’ not ‘pets.’ She might, for some reason, not have any esteem for him in other matters, but that was the one area that no one else present seemed to have any sort of comparable experience with.

He didn’t force an explanation from her, though. She was a female, she was going to do what she wanted. Her request wasn’t any big issue, after all. He needed to practice too, and he was fairly experienced with not letting someone’s gender get in the way of him doing what needed to be done in a fight, practice or not. “What sort of practice do you want? I haven’t gotten ahold of many weapons yet.” Now he did (reluctantly) put the shirt on, opening the chest at the foot of his bed. These weren’t his personal weapons, the rifle, pistols, and mek’leth that he wore were hung on the wall, but there was quite an assortment of melee weapons from various worlds that he’d picked up reasonably cheap (or by force) since he’d arrived, and it made one wonder what he would consider ‘very many’ weapons. He didn’t bother thinking about firearms, she wouldn’t want to spar with those.

Nala's eyebrows went up dramatically at his reply, though she appreciated that he seemed to be saying yes. She crossed her arms. "I appreciate that you've been trained with Klingon warriors- but you really think I should have thought of you over my fellow highly trained female agents? Padma and I were chosen for this mission because of our skills- and Jaya and I have been sparring since the day I learned how to- no one can push you harder than someone who can anticipate your every move." She replied smoothly- even as she stole a glance at his body. Nala had to admit, the more muscle he displayed, the more she approved- but the cue of him putting his shirt back on snapped her back to the present.

Where she was in a relationship with Kaalth. Who wanted to be with her forever.

Smoothly continuing her glance around the room, she noted a distinct lack of decoration- likely a habit he had picked up from the military. Or it could simply be that he had been summoned to another reality and didn't have any of his things yet. She watched as he unveiled his chest of weapons which was- impressive. Good to know about if she needed to fight.

Nala flashed her teeth. "Unarmed." She offered in reply, teasing think in her addition. "Where do you think I'd hide a weapon in my wraps? Unless you're not good at unarmed of course..."

Taarus smiled slightly. The training he’d been put through had been much more rigorous and demanding, so that he could be sent to handle the things that these women, who he did acknowledge were most certainly well trained and skilled, couldn’t handle themselves. It was better to risk a male for such things, after all, and while he didn’t really like the implied disregard in that concept, he was proud that he’d risen to the task and been equal to it. None of this, of course, would make a good answer to Nala. “Well, I don’t know,” he said, mock-thoughtfully. “Who is likely to make you learn something new, someone whose style and moves you already know, or someone who’s a mystery?”

He mirrored her smile as she requested a much more intimate form of combat, which was fine with him. Her question, though, drew a sly smile from him. “Depends on how big a weapon you need. We could probably find a place. Probably should only try when you don’t have plans for the afternoon, though...” He left it at that, leaving it to her imagination. He closed the weapons locker, the lock sealing again at once. “All right, unarmed it is. You lead the way.” Just to make sure that she couldn’t claim he couldn’t fight unarmed (which he knew she wouldn’t believe, but still), he produced a few weapons that were hidden about his person and tossed them onto the bed.

Nala rolled her eyes with a laugh and held up her hands. "Alright I concede the point- though in my defense I haven't spent much time around Orion men for a while- the last one. Well-" She frowned at her off topic comment, though she knew it would be better to bring it to a brief point then let it dangle. "He's one of the reasons why I need to stay prepared to fight." She offered softly before clearing her throat and focusing on the present rather than the past.

His remark had her chuckling again even as she fluttered her eyelashes and tilted her head to bare her neck. "Well it's all about how you use your weapon, not what size it is." She offered with a smirk- Nala was no stranger to innuendo, and she wasn't the type to back down. "And if you're only worried about plans for this afternoon, and not all the way up to tomorrow morning- I'm not sure you are." She offered with a wink, even as her mind guiltily reminded her that she was with Kaalth.

Who was very capable of keeping her busy until morning.

Very busy.

Smiling to herself as she moved to turn, she stopped and laughed when he disarmed. "You could have waited until we got there to disarm." Nala teased as she walked backwards out of his room, leading him to an open space not far from the club. Which she certainly hadn't chosen to prevent Kaalth from discovering them in a compromising position. Or to keep the club from smelling like combat. Once there she turned and took a basic stance. "Go ahead- when you're ready."

Taarus cocked an eyebrow at that one. Her wanting to be prepared, that was good. Her needing to be prepared for someone particular? No, that wasn’t good at all. “Why is he still breathing, then?” he asked, very obviously unamused. Hell, he’d go take care of it himself if she’d tell him where… but no, the answer came to him easily enough. “Oh. Let me guess, he’s useful.” That was one line of thinking he’d never been able to agree with the women on. You didn’t leave a wild animal in your house and hope it didn’t bite you in your sleep just because you liked that it ate vermin most of the time, you put it down and found some other way to deal with the vermin. But, unfortunately, he was a male, so he didn’t get to decide things like that, did he.

So as usual, it was better to put that one aside and try to move on to other thougths, which wasn’t exactly hard when he was about to be getting up close and personal with Nala. “I don’t like to assume,” he said, that smirk broadening a bit on his lips. “I don’t know how much you can take yet. I don’t want to go assuming that you’re ready for anything that… rigorous. It wouldn’t surprise me, but I’ve been let down before. If you are ready for more, though, that just means I’m not finished yet.”

Taarus followed her until they were well secluded for their sparring, approving of the fact that they were unlikely to be interrupted. As soon as she told him to go for it, he lunged in with a deceptively simple palm strike to her shoulder. He might not be stalking her, but he had watched her, he knew what arm she favored, and this hit, if she didn’t stop him, would numb her arm for a minute, keeping anything she did with that arm from being very effective. If it hit? Excellent. If she blocked it? She’d find her wrist or arm in a position where she could easily be grabbed. If she dodged it? Well, she couldn’t dodge forever.

Nala gave a half impressed look- and half frustrated because she had obviously been trying to put an end to the questioning. "He was raised without influence from a female Orion- and yes. I'm very good at my job, so I did acquire him as an asset for the Syndicate."

She flashed her teeth now that she was on a different topic. "I don't know- I mean you talk a good game, but I've been-" Nala paused before smiling ever more mischievous. "-let down before." She offered, quoting his previous statement with a pointed look towards his trousers- which she felt made it very clear that the emphasize on down was in reference to an inability to get up instead.

Fighting was easy- there were no conversational hoops to jump through, and Nala didn't have a voice in her head telling her off for flirting with Taarus when she was together with Kaalth. She saw the palm strike coming from a mile away, dropping just slightly down at the last second before lightly hooking his one leg with her ankle and pushing slightly on his back with the intents of throwing him off balance. "You know, even without fighting I do know about pressure points. And I am a trained fighter." She offered with a smirk. "And if you want to put my arm out of use, I'd suggest telegraphing your moves less."

Taarus didn’t even try to argue how stupid he thought that entire line of thinking was. She’d get offended, she’d say something nasty, probably make him say something sharp back, then she’d probably end up hitting him with pheromones and ending the discussion altogether. He’d been down that road before, he wasn’t going to go doing it again.

“Oh, I have no doubt that you’re too much for some people to handle,” he answered easily. “I think you’ll be happy with how hard I’ll work to get you what you need, though.” Damn it… was she hitting him with pheromones already? No… well, no more than just naturally happened as far as he could tell. Was that just how she naturally affected him? That… was possible, actually. Could she actually handle him? Well, he doubted it, but finding out would be fun, now, wouldn’t it?

As far as fighting went, physically she was good. She could do with less mouth on her, of course, but what woman wasn’t going to run her mouth at a man when she could? He didn’t answer her little barbs, just set his weight to keep her from moving him. Then, much faster than the first strike that… apparently she’d seen coming? (what the did ‘telegraphing’ mean?) Anyway, while she was trying to throw him off balance he rapidly shot his elbow to her jaw, then brought that fist down on her shoulder and shoved her aside hard with his hip. "No, if I'd wanted your arm disabled, I'd have just broken it." Which, of course, was true. He'd just needed an idea of her reactions before he really got started.

Nala couldn't help the laugh that his reply, despite a small part of her suggesting that maybe she ought to stay back and use a different method to exercise out her frustrations. With Kaalth. Of course. Because Nala had a boyfriend already. Forcing herself to focus on the here and now, she gave a part smile and ignored the opportunity to shoot back further.

Besides, him trying to slam his elbow into her face was turning her rather frigid. Nala just barely stepped away from that strike- which coincidentally changed the angle he had to hit her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, she absorbed that shock and went to return fire when he hip checked her. Nala was a practiced fighter- so despite her having an off day to allow him those two strikes, she was able to use the momentum as lead up to a spin and kick.

"Yes, and if I needed to disable you I could just hit you with my scent. Neither of these things are really in the spirit of sparring." She replied with a small growl. "Face is off limits by the way. I don't know your control well enough to know that you won't accidentally hit me- and I need my face, considering my job."

Being honest, Taarus hadn’t completely disarmed, because that would have been stupid. He was her security, and if something really went down while they were sparring, being caught without a way to do his duty would have been unthinkable. Right now, though, it was going to come in handy, because she’d just threatened the nuclear option. Taking a deep breath (and taking in her agitated scent was not helping…), he motioned her over, his whole posture falling out of its combat readiness. As soon as she was within striking distance of him, he dropped down to his knees in front of her, and pulled the knife from his boot. “You don’t seem to understand the position of our lives,” he said, not looking at her, “Maybe this will help.” The two tines of the Klingon dagger snapped out as he slapped it into her hand, taking hold of her wrist (despite her flinching) and pulling her closer, angling his head to the side and pressing the tip of the knife in her grip to the soft flesh at his throat, tiny beads of green blood welling up to testify to its sharpness.

He peered up at her, not moving, not letting her go (although that was as far as the force on her wrist went), not letting her pull the dagger back. His whole scent spoke of agitation, stress, something strangely like fear, but it didn’t seem to increase at all in response to the knife. “That d’k tahg was what I was given when I was accepted as a soldier in the Klingon Defense Force. This proves my honor, and that is the only thing I have that proves that there is any value in my life. I am your man. I was called here to make sure you succeed in anything you do, and that you stay safe as long as I’m alive. Even if I cared nothing for you, I’d do it anyway, because that’s what my honor demands.”

His eyes took on a hard, resigned look, as he squeezed her wrist, though not hard. “I don’t know how to make you trust me. But until you do, once a day or any time you tell me to, I will be on my knees, like this. If you even think you have to use your scent to control me, now or any time, drive that knife up into my brain.” His jaw clenched as he went on, locking his eyes on her. “I would rather be dead than a brainless puppet again, but that’s your decision.”

The sudden change in Taarus's attitude was surprising... But Nala could respond in kind. Dropping her hands, she straightened from her stance, and opened her posture so as not to pose a threat. When he dropped to his knees. She momentarily reeled back, automatically trying to get out of striking range- though he was faster and had a grip on her wrist before she managed. His grip wasn't causing damage, but it certainly felt like a shackle on her wrist as she tried to pull herself free.

She only stopped when he pressed the blade against his own throat- not because the gesture had put a stop to her fear, but because she was afraid that if she moved too much, she might accidentally hurt him with it. The tiny beads of blood didn't go beneath her notice- as Nala tried not to shake. She listened to his explanation with fear present in every aspect of her stance. She stood as far away as she could, scent flaring with her emotions, and shoulders shrinking inwards to be a smaller target.

She was a well trained agent, and yet this was all it took to make her feel like she was on her mission, waiting to be hurt again. When he finished speaking, she nodded her understanding before reaching her other hand forward to snatch the knife from where he had forced it. Now that she was not worried she might hurt him, she started pulling on her wrist again.

It took Nala a moment to remember that she wasn't on that hell of a mission and that this man might listen to her. Taking a deep breath, she picked up the scent of her sparring partner, that he was afraid as well. Nala actually kind of appreciated that, meant that she wasn't alone in her fear. Swallowing hard, she finally produced words. "Please. Let go." She murmured, breathing a sigh of relief when he did.

Carefully she leaned over and placed the knife on the ground in front of him before taking a few careful steps back and sitting down in a graceless plop. Pulling her hair pin free, she tapped the tip of it against her thumb, showing him the resulting blood pooling. "I would rather die than be a man's punching bag again." She offered quietly in reply before twisting her hair back into place and returning the weapon to it's place.

Wrinkling her nose, she gave him a small pathetic laugh and shake of her head. "Perhaps we should know each other better before we start sparring again. So let's start by talking first." Swinging her legs to the side to take a more lady like seat, she tapped her fingers on the ground beside her as she thought. "I'd suggest we start off with something light. So. What is your favourite colour?"

Well, he didn’t get a dagger up into his brain, that was a plus. While it might be preferable to what she could do to him, it still didn’t mean he wanted her to kill him. When she set the dagger down, he picked it back up, folded the blades in, and sheathed it, though he kept it in his hand, out of his boot for now. She might have put it down, but it didn’t mean he hadn’t meant what he’d said, after all.

The fact that she was this scared of him when she was holding a knife to his throat (under his insistence or not) could have been laughable if it hadn’t been for the situation they were in. He was threatened by her greatest defense, she was threatened by his, and all the more ridiculous since neither of them seemed to have any reason to even want to hurt the other. Her assertion that she would rather be dead than at the mercy of a man again just drove home how idiotic he thought it was that the brute that had beaten her had been allowed to live, but that was the Syndicate for you. He didn’t make the policy, he just had to do what he was told. Reluctantly, usually. “I’d rather you be alive and be using him as a punching bag.” He shrugged a little. “Or let me do it. I’d be just as fine with that.”

So she called a halt to their aborted sparring, and all things considered, he didn’t think he could blame her for that one. Crouching down next to her, he leaned against the wall, the better to be able to get back to his feet if there were any reason… then he thought better and actually sat down. They weren’t going to get attacked. He didn’t need to be on guard all the damned time, and maybe, just maybe, it would help her calm down around him if he calmed down, too. “Blue,” he answered without much thought. “On a Bird of Prey, everything’s lit in red. On Quo’nos, everything’s lit in red. I went for years being able to count the times I saw anything as blue on my fingers. I’m definitely going to go with blue.”

Nala gave him a small smile at the offer. "Yeah well- if he didn't have strategic value, I would have ripped his damn nose plug off, and I would have had him begging on his hands and knees for forgiveness. Scared him out of his wits maybe." It was one of their less used strengths- but there were pheromones that conveyed danger too, and she could pretty easily manipulate her scent in that way as well. "But I'll keep that in mind if I ever run into some asshole that I can't get the better of in any fashion. And I promise I won't use my pheromones on you."

Recovering a small bit of her bravado, she did wink at him. "Though Kaalth doesn't seem to mind." Nala offered with a laugh. Of course any time she had used her scent on the man, they had both been aware of the situation, and he was pretty used to breathing through his mouth right up to the moment when he decided he wanted to be hit with her pheromones. So a little different than involuntary exposure. Still- it was good to get her mind off of the image of Taarus- and return to Kaalth who if he knew she was scared would have dropped everything to care for her.

Which only made her insides a little warm and gooey. Only a little.

She listened to Taarus' reply with a small tilt of her head- it was one thing to love blue- and completely fair- but the rest was kind of contrary to her opinion... Nala gave a small laugh and smile. "Mine's red. My mom and I are the only ones with red hair in my family- My memories of her, it's the most distinct part. The only part that I don't need to see a picture to remember perfectly. I don't even really remember her or scent." She offered with a reminiscent sigh. "And no matter what technology can capture- it can't offer me the scent of my mother. So I focus on the things I do have." With a small smile she pulled her hair pin free again, though this time she offered the other end to admire- the end covered in red and burgundy gems.

“Yeah, well, strategic value to who,” Taarus said, a bit scornfully. It was easy for the Syndicate heads to decide someone was valuable when their faces weren’t the ones being bruised up. It was a good thing that the Syndicate wasn’t exactly here, and if they did decide to come here, Nala’s family were the people on the ground and would be hard to elbow out of the way. Taarus would probably have to elbow some people preemptively so that they wouldn’t try, but he could manage that.

Not, of course, that he really expected it to be appreciated. Everything around here came back to Kaalth for some reason, like he was in any way capable of handling the situations likely to come up. Fussing like a nursemaid was apparently a more valued talent than eliminating threats. Taarus didn’t bother saying that Kaalth didn’t mind being chemically controlled because he was an idiot. Nala was smart, he was sure that she was aware of the fact.

“I’ve tried to forget my mother,” he said, shaking his head, though he took the hair pin to examine it when she offered it. “She didn’t have any use for a son, she had enough pheromone-slaves that she didn’t need one more. The only real use she had for me was teaching my sisters how to use their pheromones to control men.” The memories came back, that haze of confused, revolted arousal that the then-young boy had been too inexperienced to keep clear of. He handed the pin back with a slightly shaking hand, not wanting to risk squeezing it, given the present reminiscences. “They thought it was a great time. Make mother proud of them, then for the rest of the day they could tell me what a freak I was, reacting to family like that, as if I had a choice. I didn’t get to learn that getting used to family scents takes time until I was almost grown.” Time which, of course, most normal women would keep a low scent up so that the child in question would be able to grow accustomed to it, rather than flood them like a target so that they could never learn to resist. Time which, of course, he hadn’t had any reason to not believe that he was a freak like they’d said.

Nala was blissfully lost on vague recollections of her mother when Taarus's reply came crashing down on her. Without even thinking, her face contorted into a look of utter disgust, body shaking ever so slightly- though unlike the man's residual fear of the situation- hers was largely anger.

Nala retched slightly at the very idea, clasping a hand to her mouth and taking slow deep breaths to try and calm herself. She held one finger up in his direction before walking a few feet away and spitting the acidic saliva out of her mouth. Task completed she returned to where she had been and took a seat again. The very idea of the situation was enough to make her an entirely different kind of green- but if anyone deserved to be ill from revulsion, it was Taarus, not her. Even if her somewhat matriarchal nature meant that she was filled with an overwhelming need to go hurt these woman who had mistreated someone under her protection. Eve. If it happened long before Nala would consider Taarus under her protection.

Finally making words, she croaked- voice husky from the gastric juices in her throat. "I am sorry that that happened to you. You wish to use my mission target as a punching bag- but I think I should like to kill your mother and sisters." Graceless spitting to her side again Nala's nose wrinkled up, her mouth pinching in, as her eyes filled with steel. "I am the only woman in my immediate family- and I won't deny that I have used my pheromones on my brothers- but I used them in a manner of guilting them into doing my chores- the very idea-" Nala cut herself short, taking a large huff of air before turning to make certain he would look into her eyes.

"So long as you are under my protection, no woman will do that to you." She stated, voice low and threatening- though it was but a promise to him. "And if you would like, I will teach you how to tune out a woman's pheromones. It does however require me to use my scent on you- though I will steer clear of arousal- so I understand if you are not comfortable. You should just know that it's an option."

Well, at least she wasn’t looking at him like he was a freak. Compared to that, her nearly being sick was almost, well, comical. “Yeah, that sums it up,” he agreed. “I guess I can’t say much about your guy… my family’s still alive too.” Which, he guessed, was pretty much admitting a weakness, but when it had come down to it, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to kill members of his family. It was stupid, he guessed, but there it was.

“I’ve learned to block them out since then, though. Whenever it was really too much, I used to carry a hypo to paralyze my sense of smell, but obviously I don’t have that anymore. Once it was clear I wasn’t going to put up with the women toying with me, they decided it’d be a good idea to let me run off and enlist in the KDF. Making us look like good allies to the Klingons is supposed to be almost as useful as being a good little thrall like the other men.” He managed to keep the tone of disdain out of his voice through some miracle. He wasn’t a stone, he couldn’t exactly be around a gorgeous woman who wasn’t being horrible to him without getting the natural ideas, but there was a sad truth there: Had he ever actually been with an Orion woman? No, he hadn’t. “You haven’t done anything to make me uncomfortable. Don’t start worrying about changing anything.”

Nala wrinkled her nose and sighed. "It's frustrating- when what you want to do, and what you can do are notably different things." She nudged him with her shoulder in a gesture of solidarity. "If you ever need- my family is very well looked upon by the syndicate- since my mom died in active duty- we could probably get away with some seemingly random murders before they'd start caring." Nala offered with a mischievous smile- though she was confident he wouldn't be taking her up on that offer. For the best since it seemed like she might be needing that leeway considering how poorly she had been doing at everything lately.

It was for the best that they were sitting down-- it stopped Taarus from being able to see that her one arm was shaking, all the way down from the joint he had nailed. Nala half sat on her hand to force it still.

She smiled at him softly. "I'm glad to hear that." She hummed, ready to ask him about his time in the KDF when his offhand comment made her go frigid all over again. She pursed her lips slightly- he may have masked his disdain, but his words said more than enough.

Nala couldn't help the small crease that wrinkled her brow as she looked at her hands folded in her lap. "Is.. There something wrong, with a man choosing to care for the woman he loves? To let said woman care for him, protect him, and build a home together?" She sighed and shook her head. "I understand. That you may be disinclined to the idea of fulfilling a woman's every whim- but why does that make it wrong for other men to want that?"

She stood up slowly, dusting her pants off as she twisted her hair back into place. "Men like my father. And brothers. And Kaalth." She added softly. "You treat Kaalth like he's inferior because he was raised in a different time- and My father- you only know the man that's been alone for a long time. Once upon a time, when the love of his life was alive- he was a man a lot more like Kaalth than like you."

Nala sighed, voice quivering ever so slightly. "So you insult most of the men I care about when you call them 'thralls.'" She shook her head lightly. "I don't care, whether or not you want to be that kind of homemaker- the same way I'd support Jaya if she wanted to be a warrior- But that doesn't mean I have to roll over and let her insult my choices, or those of my family."

Taarus surveyed Nala with an appraising eye as he considered his answer to this. The subject was, even to him, a complex one. He had to constantly remind himself of the way things were, because even to Orions, it was not the way that they were wired to think. Biology, emotional needs, everything was stacked against him being able to keep this idea up every minute of the day. The woman in front of him was just proof of it. In spite of every logical idea in his head, he did care about her, the idea of someone hurting her did infuriate him, and he did want to keep her safe and secure… but it didn’t make them any less true. He decided that he’d go with the truth… or at least a version of it.

“Kaalth is as threatening as a tribble, but he tries to bare fangs he doesn’t have anyway,” Taarus said bluntly, wanting to get this one out of the way. “He infuriates and frustrates me, because every trained instinct I have tells me to cuff him so that he’ll stop and not try to do that with someone who would hurt him for it, and there are those who would. If you want to play with warriors, you learn how to push against the ones who outclass you without threatening them, but he can’t learn that, because I can’t put him in his place. You wouldn’t want me to… so I don’t. Which is, as I’ve said, infuriatingly frustrating.” Even among the Klingons, there were those who tended the crops, there were those who herded the beasts… those jobs had to be done. There wasn’t glory in it, but the warriors didn’t mistreat them, because they all knew they needed them. They never thought to show any attitude to a warrior, though, just like a novice soldier might train with his captian, but wouldn’t dream of mocking him during the fight.

Granted, maybe he was the only one who Kaalth did that to, and for obvious reasons… but he didn’t have any way of knowing, really. He could only judge by their interactions.

And that answer was the easy one to give, compared to the rest of what she asked. “And what should I think of the idea that I should wrap myself up in what someone else wants and not care about myself? The women don’t want a man who’s going to think or challenge them, they want us easily controlled, and we both know how. I could do it, of course, I tried to do it, the showering with gifts, the unending attention… but it was all empty. Making us compete for who’s going to give the most expensive presents or anticipate what hour they want their meals and try to guess at what they want to eat, just to be told we were wrong because it’s fun to see us squirm… that’s not ‘love’, it’s browsing for pets. Your father seems like a good man, a sensible man… maybe he got lucky. I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but I hope he was. But just because some fair better doesn’t mean that I can’t call the lies that our people shoved down at us what they are.”

He deliberately kept himself from shifting to a more defensive posture, because everything told him to close himself up right now, but no… he wasn’t going to. “It’d be nice to be able to believe them,” he admitted, “But I can’t.” The evidence was all around him, after all. Here he was, around women of his own race for the first time in at least a decade, and what did they all want? Someone servile who’d give them the things they wanted. He’d seen what partners were among the Klingons, and that concept just didn’t exist among the Orions, and he found that in some strange way, that... hurt.

Being completely honest, Nala appreciated that he was willing to be straight with her. She still wanted to tear him a new one for it- something she promptly started on when he finished his tirade against Kaalth. "Hold on for a moment- because you have one thing fundamentally wrong. Kaalth may bare his teeth to you- but that's because he's afraid I'll want you more than him. Beyond that he would rather leave than inflict pain of any kind that was not to protect someone he loves." Nala began, though she winced internally because okay maybe Kaalth's fears weren't entirely unfounded. She was definitely attracted to Taarus- but that didn't mean anything. Physical attraction was not the same as emotional attraction.

Even if she maybe liked being able to have conversations that didn't end simply because Kaalth chose the answer she'd like best.

She growled in response to his next comments. "You know what, you're right, I do like to be pampered. Almost like when I come back from being a slave to someone else, I'm disinclined to do even more work. Because unlike you, I know true slavery." She took a deep breath before starting in on her tirade again. "Do you think it's easy to just flip my hair and make men dance to my scent? Because it isn't. Even among those who are willing, like Kaalth, if they are even slightly hesitant they are fully capable of resisting. Yeah it sucks that your mom and sisters were complete bitches, but I don't exactly have it easy. I've spent years of my life toiling away in the worst jobs available- or as someone's pleasure slave, there only for the purpose of having someone who will fuck you however you want."

She stood up, anger radiating from her. "You talk about who can give the most expensive presents- I might as well be property. Even when I'm at home- any man I marry is expected to pay my father for me. Because there will always be a quantifiable number of what I am worth." Nala crossed her arms and glared down at him. "Not all women behave that way. I will say when I am hungry, I don't care what you make- even if it is disgusting I have likely eaten worse, I try to give presents in return, and if a man shows no interest in being under the influence of my scent- I will not use it on them.You judge all women by the actions of a few- and see their actions as attacks where there isn't a threat. A lot of my friends who do play with men like that- it's a test Taarus. To see how patient they are, how loyal, how much the man genuinely wants to be with her."

She turned her back and started walking back to the Goddess. "If it was empty to you, then it's because you were chasing the wrong woman."