Neymi visibly considered Darion's response to her own biting remarks, and the reply that finally came lacked the teeth and edge of Neymi's usual way of speaking.<span style="color: blue">"I zuppose that's true. You have enough wits to win the fights you get in, and to ztay out of the fights you can't. It does zeem like that's all you need."</span>She offered the man a brief smile.<span style="color: blue">"If all of us were as lucky as you in that regard..."</span>Her sentence was left lingering as Darion spoke his mind about Toi, a frown souring her delicate features.<br/><br/><br/><span style="color: blue">"Wait."</span>She said as he turned to deal with the android waiting in the loading dock. She averted her gaze away from her, folding back her ears.<span style="color: blue">"If you despise Toi for being a zex bot, even if he not anymore, does that mean you despise me as well?"</span>She met his gaze again, a quiet storm brewing in her eyes.<span style="color: blue">"It's all I was programmed to be through my genes. Just as a useless zex bot. Only made of flesh and far more exotic. That's all I was made to be. A toy, a thing, something to be used and abused."</span>Once the confession starts, it doesn't stop, the things Neymi had been hesitating to say now flowing from her lips like a swelling tide.<span style="color: blue">"I'm physically mature, but I've counted less than three years of time spent in this galaxy. I'm probably younger than Toi. It's hard to tell, I wasn't zupposed to ever reach mental maturity in the first place. My first truly conscious and zelf-aware thought came to me when I was covered in blood. My own and that of others, sitting inside an escape pod and about to feed myself a bullet"</span>She makes the gesture with her hand, casting no doubt that she was talking about suicide.<br/><br/>The hybrid clings to herself as memory floods into her mind along with her words.<span style="color: blue">"I was a child, trapped in an adult's body, zubjected to endless rape in zome pirate lord's harem. Knowing only what I was taught in the form of command words I ztill find hard to resist. The one thing that bought me freedom were my powers. A zlight miscalculation of the bio-engineers who made me. I was zupposed to only read minds and know what zomeone wanted to get off before they zaid, not get into their heads." </span>An almost hysterical laugh leaves her hoarse throat.<span style="color: blue">"A simple mistake, or maybe mutation. That's the only reason I'm free. Without that I'd still be there, getting fucked and bred endlessly by men and monsters for whom 'morals' is just zomething they laugh at!"</span>She raised her voice slowly as she spoke and vocalized what tormented her.<br/><br/><br/><span style="color: blue">"You think having to zhoot some POWs was bad, Darion, zome of us had it worse. There are days I wish I had just ended it there in that escape pod. At least my zuffering would've been over and I wouldn't have the memories tormenting me in my zleep."</span>Neymi sniffles, wiping away the tears that had been forming. Speaking softer now as she regained her somber composure<span style="color: blue">"I nearly did, the only reason I didn't is because of them."</span>She waved at the droid that was playing the all too cheerful music. "<span style="color: blue">The Aravi are traders who stumbled upon my escape pod. They're the only people in this zick galaxy I've ever cared about, and I might not like droids, least of all ones built for zex, but I can respect them enough to treat them nicely. Because if the Aravi zaw more in me than a zimple zex toy, I can zee more in zex bots than what they were made for."</span><br/><br/>Neymi met the man's gaze again after a moment of silence, speaking lowly but clear enough to be understood.<span style="color: blue">"If you despise Toi for what it is, despise me then as well. The truth of the matter is zimple. What we were <i>then</i> is not what we are <i>now</i>. It left us with the body, instincts, needs and... command words, but neither I nor Toi are the mindless toys we were back when we were zimply objects."</span>She sighed, more to herself than about Darion.<span style="color: blue">"People can just as easily be convinced to work against those who trust them as droids, Darion. I'm not telling you to like or fuck him, just respect him. If anything, he's less likely to turn on you if you do."</span>Her shoulders sag, her energy spent after the flood of emotions and memories brought forth by relating part of her story to the man.<span style="color: blue">"Ugh... You zhould go see that android at the loading dock. I need some time alone, zorry."<br/>
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