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[Retroboy]

Apophe sat in her room, picking at her bandages. To say that she felt awful would be an understatement. She had hurt Amelia and thrashed that serving girl. She had tried to make amends, of course. With Amelia it was a lot of begging and with the girl, she had offered to pay for a wedding. Still, no matter what she did to try and make up to people, Apophe felt horrible. She had lost control and lost her mind. No one was ever going to look at her the same way. She didn't know if she could look at herself in the same way.

She sucked on her hookah, pulling the smoke into her lungs and holding it there for a moment. She felt her muscles relax, and she laid down across the chaise-lounge, taking olives from her bowl and eating them, tossing the pits over her shoulder once she had picked the olives free of meat. She watched the smoke coil in the beams of light that filtered into her room, musing on them.

She was dressed spartanly, wearing only a vest and some shorts. She hadn't mustered up the will to wear anything more fancy than that.

She waited in her room. She had asked Markus to join her, being one of the few people she felt might not judge her for her outburst, at least after the favour she had done him. She thought about his daughter again, quietly. She wondered how well the girl was going to acclimate to the life of a Void Serpent. She felt no guilt for taking the girl away from her family, because her family was probably going to die, but she didn't want Markus' child to hate her, either.

"Too much crud going on lately..." she said.

 

[Asteroid]

Once again Markus found himself on Zakuul, this time he wasn't overseeing a weapons shipment or delivering some custom made peice of technology but was consoling an extremely forlorn queen. During one of her migraines Apophe had beaten one of her attendants and had injured her girlfriend Amelia. Markus was glad that the pirate got a taste of Apophe's migraines and hoped that she would just cut her losses and piss off back to wherever she came from. He detested Amelia and almost everything about her ever since she showed up one day and instantly wedged herself into Void Serpant 'politics' for lack of a better word. Her first sensitivity, her unaturally longevity and youth, her ADHD that she openly flaunted, her cocky sense of humor, and that ridiculous little sword she carried around with her; all things that made Markus want to end her miserable existence with a vengeance. Whenever Markus felt annoyed he fantasizesed about shoving that silly little blade through her sternum and instantly felt better. Granted Apophe probably didn't share his sense of humor and was devastated that she struck Amelia. So here he was down on this god forsaken swamp planet holding a bottle of vodka in one hand and two glasses in the other. Markus knocked on Apophe's door a few times before walking in and setting the booze down on a table. "Saw you lay into that slave and I've got to say you've got one hell of a right hook." He remarked as he filled both glasses with the clear booze before sitting down and offering her one of the glasses. ​

 

[Retroboy]

Apophe only half-heartedly responded to Markus' request to be let into the room, looking up at him with a sort of vaguely sad expression as he entered. She knew she should be happy to see her friend, but Apophe had a lot on her mind lately and it was starting to wear her down. She looked at the vodka as he poured it, though, and she forced a smile for him.

"Thanks," she said.

She grimaced deeply, however, when he brought up her failure. He saw it? Great, so there was evidence that Apophe had completely lost her marbles. That was just perfect. She was barely dressed at the time too so it seemed like at least a few people had seen the Royal goods. Absolutely fantastic. She wondered how long until that began to circulate the holo-net. How many would she have to eviscerate?

She raised her glass.

"A toast to me and my ability to screw up everything good in my life," she said sulkily, before downing her drink.

She lifted up a hose from her hookah, waggling it at Markus. "You want some?"

 

[Asteroid]

"You're being to hard on yourself Apophe." Markus replied as he took the hose from Apophe and attempted to figure out how the hooka worked. "Everybody knows what happens when you get those headaches of yours and standing in the middle of that scenario is a good way to get smacked. Stupidity knows know bounds and you shouldn't fault yourself because someone else didn't listen to you." After he was finished Markus finally figured out how to operate the hooka and took a short drag off of the metal hose before exhaling a small cloud of smoke. ​

 

[Retroboy]

"The servant girl didn't do anything wrong, Markus," Apophe said sadly. "She just went to wake me up. I'd been fine the night before. She couldn't have known I was going to be like that."

Apophe frowned deeper, falling into self-pity. She knew she wasn't really the party that had been hurt the most here - that had been the serving girl. But she couldn't help but feel sorry for herself. She had been driven mad by pain, she wasn't entirely at fault here... and Rokuro had worked to alleviate it some, so she was getting treated.

"Thank you again for coming," she said. "You're... You're a really good friend."

 

[Asteroid]

Markus chuckled as Apophe thanked him for coming to consol her. " 'Good friend', hah that is not the first word I would use to describe myself." He remarked with a grin as he took another drink. "Now I don't know exactly what is causing these headaches of yours, however, if you want me to try I could probably get you some very strong painkillers. Would at least help you to manage them."​

 

[Retroboy]

"You've always been behind me," Apophe said. "I don't forget things like that."

She sighed. She supposed it was time to come clean.

"What's causing these headaches is brain damage," she said. "We had some look at some brain scans they did and apparently all the blows I've taken to my head over the years are starting to catch up to me. Right now, I've got Rokuro to help me, but if he hadn't done anything, apparently I was gonna be lucky if I didn't basically become a giant toddler before I was 50."

She sucked back more smoke, pulling it deep down into her lungs. The narcotic effects were already starting to work on her, and she could feel her movements becoming more sluggish.

"I think I've been too careless," she said. "I'm focusing too much on the warrior part of being a warrior queen. I need to focus on other things. I've got a fiancée who loves me and friends who care and a nation that needs me."

"What do you think, Markus?"

 

[Asteroid]

Markus always had a sneaking suspicion that brain damage was the cause of Apophe's headaches considering that the Yahm like to fight up close and personal but never really knew for certain. Markus sighed as he took another drag off of Apophe's hooka.

"I think it's time for you to wear a damn helmet." He said with a chuckle as the alcohol and drugs began to effect him. "You're a fighter Apophe, you've always been one and that's what you're good at. Leave the nation building to me, I'm more than capable of handling it and I've got the men to back me up. It would be a waste of your talents to be stuck in a chair all day."​

 

[Retroboy]

Apophe looked over at Markus, and smiled despite the rotten mood she was in. Yeah, maybe Markus was stating the obvious but wearing a helmet wasn't exactly a terrible idea given how she got into this predicament in the first place. She looked down at her wounds again and adjusted her bandages. Why she chose to claw all over herself was a mystery even to Apophe.

"Aahhh, crap," she said. "You're probably right, Markus."

She looked at him again as she drained her glass entirely. It was a lot better than the usual stuff she drank, although that wasn't the highest praise considering Apophe's drink of choice was a form of moonshine distilled from fungus. She looked through the glass for a moment, and then set it down, rolling onto her back and taking another drag of the smoke.

"What's going on in your life, Markus?"