What better way to calm the raging seas of the mind and its thoughts than to organize a cantankerous and chaotic mass into something beautiful. Intersections, vertices, geometric shapes, ordered angles, all merging themselves into a three-dimensional object of order and solace. For the moment though, it was only half beauty and half calamity. A hovering hand wanted to touch it, to mold it more beautiful but winced as the thought exploded within that doing so would only mean several steps backward. Finally removing something unsightly and placing it elsewhere gave rise to a more complete and more beautiful form giving it all a more complete structure with still yet areas of uncleanliness and disarray. Seconds seemed to stretch into hours as the hovering hand moved about and winced about attempting to decide what next to do to bring order to the mass just as the player sought to bring calm to the tumultuous thoughts firing within the mind. An unraveling memory caused the shaky hand to make a move resulting in a less ordered mass. One step back. But, in making that step back, a more secure foundation revealed itself thus proving once again that sometimes a little more chaos is needed to bring about sanity. Happy now, the hovering hand moves again with the end result of greater form. More vertices interlocking thus forming shapes more grand and the goal as a whole growing ever closer. A funny thing; logic and order. Even in the face of mass chaos, one stray element is sometimes providence to make visible the path to take for the desired endgame yet treacherous and precarious said path may still be. Sweaty palm and twitchy fingers, the hovering hand continues to move and craft and mold and bring continued harmony and the seeds of order to the ever perfecting sphere. Almost there. The taste of victory lingering in the mind with a jittering joy about to explode as the key to unlocking the ultimate answer seems only a movement or two yet out of reach. Chaos be gone yet some confusion remains as the hovering hand seeks what to do next. At last, two pieces. Both seemingly holding the ordered structure steady yet both meet at an odd angle and an odd vertex, working against each other. Only one does not belong. The other does. And the movement of what does not belong will bring final order making the victory complete and not just a lingering drop of flavor in the back of the mind. The jittering joy reaching critical mass as the hovering hand reaches for one then the other; back to the first. Picking one and removing it…

‘Perfection.’

The spherical mass dissolves into a chaotic clump of interwoven rods returning itself back to the unordered cantankerous state it was originally found.

‘See? Perfection.’

Heriah did not even take a second look at the kal-toh stand as she closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall backward and into a nearby seat. Pressing her palms to her head, she allowed the critical mass of the jittering joy to stabilize and evaporate away.

‘I wonder if that thing has an undo button.’

‘I wonder if the Joining Commission can provide me with an undo button.’

‘Hey, no promises you cannot keep.’

“Just shut up,” she said as she stood and stepped away toward the lavatory.

Kal-toh was introduced to her by Rikata Mol whilst she attended the Academy. Given the unique situation Heriah was in, with her joining with Rex and all, Rikata felt her playing and figuring out Kal-toh was a fantastic way for her to calm herself, order her thoughts, and, in the long run, assist in rehabilitating Rex from his mania.

All Rex seemed to want however was destruction and chaos. Heriah thought she had felt a twinge of knowledge to go after the other Kal-toh rod to complete the puzzle but felt an overwhelming urge to go after the one she had picked. Ultimately, it return Kal-toh back to its original state. The overwhelming urge?

‘Oh it has to be me doesn’t it?’

The monocorder on her finger flashed green indicating adequate levels of isoboramine. There was more than enough to keep the minds of the symbiont and host from separating.

‘Which begs the question. Are you arguing with me or really with yourself?’

Heriah looked herself over in the mirror and also peered at the jumbled mess of rods atop the Kal-toh stand over the shoulder of her reflection.

“Surround yourself with those who know and love you,” she said to her reflection.

“Yeah. Who will be willing to do that, seeing the jumbled mess that is me.”

Heriah went to put her uniform on. Though it was after hours, she had nothing else to do, save for returning to the refugee processing area and continue hearing the same tales of woe all over again. At least it kept her away from and from thinking about the Kal-toh rods of her mind and thoughts.