39th Ashan, 721.
Later on, Vega would admit to Darius that she wasn't completely sure that she'd helped Ari'sora by de-Dweebing her. The ability she had used on her gave the woman a new start but Vega was more than a little concerned that the self-destructive victim complex which Vega had seen was not because of the trauma Ari'sora had experienced, but simply part of her nature. If that was the case, of course, it was entirely possible that this had been what attracted abusive people to her. Not that it in any way justified the actions of those who had harmed her, but that thought still made Vega want to shake her.
"There's nothin' wrong with your name," Vega said, speaking more firmly than Darius did. "But no one said there was, an' that's really not the point." She was, as always, uncompromising and unwilling to sugar coat. "You chose to do this. You chose to have a new face, an' to lose your memories. In what corner of the world does it make sense to do that an' then use your old name while you're tryin' to work out who you are?" It had been more than five and a half seconds since she used the ability on her, so Vega figured the woman might have thought about this by now. "You're from Scalvoris. People here know you, an' know of you. Since that's more than a possibility, it's a likelihood, then keepin' your name makes no sense for a few reasons. First, you're draggin' your old identity out, as a winged person called Ari'sora isn't likely to be like a human called Jim, is it? Especially not on an island this small." She frowned, looking and sounding irritated. "If you want to get a firm grasp on who you are now, then do that, an' recognise that you're dredging up who you were every time you introduce yourself." She gestured. "An' for those people who do know you, if you say who you are, but look different to the person they know, that's goin' to cause all sorts of questions an' confusion."
Shaking her head, Vega looked at Ari'sora and then at Isra and Darius, then she turned her gaze back to the half-avriel. "I don't know you. You came to me, an' you asked me for help. An' I was an' am happy to give it. But you need to stop this nonsense before it starts again," she said. Vega looked at Ari'sora, but gestured to Isra and then - at the appropriate moment, Darius. "You're not helpless. Get off your ass an' get out in the world. Stop hidin' an' waitin' for other people to do things for you. Isra has said, clearly, that you don't need no more treatment an' Darius has told you that you can't stay here. If you want to discover who you are, then jus' get out there an' live." She truly believed that someone needed to talk straight and clear to this woman because, in Vega's mind, it needed saying. "You've got a family, Isra's written to them. Either go back to them or don't, that don't matter. They've only got the power to shape who you are if you let them. An' since right now you know them as much as you know me, that means that anyone here, anyone could do that - could shape you with expectations - because you let them. That's up to you. But stop sittin' meekly in a corner an' listenin' to people reel off lists of uses for herbs. It's not doin' anythin'. Get out an' do stuff. Stop bein' a victim, because you're not any more - an' start bein' a person. Learn medicine by treatin' people who are injured. Travel the world. Learn to juggle. I don't know." She smiled slightly. "But I do know that 'I don't want to be known, but I'm stayin' close enough to home that I could throw a stone through the window and usin' my old name' is stupid. Stop bein' stupid." It was so glaringly obvious to Vega that she would, quite happily, have bet that no individual in receipt of all their faculties would ever do otherwise. It seemed she was wrong.
"No one has the answers for what you should do other than you. But you need to get out there an' find them." Vega's eyes swirled in a variety of colours. "I know that I sound harsh to you, but I'm right worried that you're jus' automatically fallin' into old behaviours. I changed your face for you an' your memories, but you don't even think to sort out your name, because no one told you to? You will decide who you are now, an' no one else can. If you want to shed your old life, then do it. You've said you want to, an' then I've given you the chance to. Now take that chance, an' stop flaffin' around here waitin' for somethin' to happen. Isra's done her bit, I've done my bit - now, you need to do yours an' jus' get on."
She stopped then and glanced at Darius and Isra. Isra, who had been on the receiving end of Vega's caustic tongue simply raised an eyebrow, and waited to hear what Ari'sora had to say. Tellingly, Isra did not argue, not with either Vega or Darius. Instead, she waited to hear if Ari'sora actually heard what they were saying to her. Glancing at the healer who knew that half-avriel in front of her better than anyone else here, Vega considered that Isra seemed to be watching Ari with the same concerns that Vega herself was feeling.
