Private Blossoms on the Wind

[Reina Daival]

Tag: Ayame Tsukihana
Location: Atrisia

Atrisia. Reina's nose wrinkled to herself as she wandered the planet, aimlessly. Well, it wasn't entirely aimlessly. She had to get used to this. Walking normally. It was hard to think about as she stared down at her leg. It shouldn't be there. The flesh. The blood. It should have been replaced with cold hard metal. She had just gotten used to the prosthesis and it had been ripped away from her like all things were. A lot had been ripped away from her and replaced with something else that wasn't her. It was someone else. Reina didn't feel like herself anymore. Who was she meant to be? It was a question that had been on her mind since she was rescued. She couldn't dare look herself in the mirror anymore...or to contact her old friends. The three who had saved her was an exception. Colette. Everest. Valery. She couldn't hide from them. Everest had been doing her best to try and help, whilst Colette had been doing the best to guide Reina from now on...but there were others Reina wouldn't communicate with. Couldn't. Klar. Reina hoped that the Codru-Ji was safe...Azurine. Aadhir. Neither of them were people Reina could communicate with.

It didn't help that Reina couldn't talk. Or well, wouldn't talk. The voice that came out from her lips wasn't hers. Not anymore. The same way as the face she had wasn't her. The skin. It had all changed. None of her scars...her injuries. None of that remained. Though...on the upside, she wasn't letting that stop her from trying to communicate. She had been working on learning once more. Not in the ways of the Jedi, no. Reina didn't feel like one of those anymore. Instead...she was just learning life skills. Whilst she had been working on Galactic Sign Language and Outer Rim Sign Language, it was still a struggle for her. She wasn't a good student. So of course, she had some kind of backup plan. A simple datapad that she could write down on...Sure, the fact she struggled with spelling was an issue as well but it was an issue she'd need to confront.

For now however, Reina was wandering to deal with her thoughts. She had done her best to assure that Colette that she didn't have to worry about Reina taking a simple walk like this. Atrisia was...far safer of a planet in Reina's opinion than Tatooine had been. The planet could help the healing that Reina needed as well. It wasn't the physical she needed. It was the spiritual. The emotional. And this brings us to where Reina stopped at this precise moment. Standing on the edge of a clear pond, with various small fish swimming back and forth. Reina brushed herself down for a moment before she knelt by the water, staring at the fish. Staring at her own reflection. The face that should feel so familiar just seeming to be a stranger's.

"...I have more in common with you than I used to now."

A simple sentence that sounded so wrong to Reina's ears. It wasn't that it sounded wrong. Her voice wasn't hoarse, nor was it like nails on a chalkboard. No. Her voice was sweet. It had almost a natural song-like element to her words. Reina was no stranger to singing. She had used to recall dozens of sea shanties...but now it felt like that was her constant way of speaking. There had to be a way for her to control it. To talk at least somewhat normally, so that it didn't feel like every word was part of a song...but in this moment? She would stick to her alternative methods of speaking.

Her hand gently swayed through the water before Reina lifted it, using the Force to gently bring a small trail of water snaking its way up her arm, twisting and turning. The irony hadn't been lost on her from the transformation. She had always felt so much more at home in water. In the ocean. Dry land had always felt like a cage for her...and now? She would always be at her best in the water. It would always feel like home for her. And for once in her life? Reina hated the idea of the sea being her home.​

 

[Ayame Tsukihana]

Tag: Reina Daival


Ayame Tsukihana had slipped away again.

It was never out of rebellion. Just a quiet defiance wrapped in folded sleeves and soft steps. Her handmaidens thought her in study with the scrollmaster this morning. In truth, she had excused herself after tea and walked a path she hadn't taken in weeks.

Lately, her days had grown more formal, more confined. Her father had spoken of engagements — of names and dates and appearances to be kept. Her presence, he said, mattered. She was a Tsukihana, after all.

But presence was not the same as freedom.

She clutched her small woven book bag to her chest, feeling the spine of a half-read romance tucked between layers of silk. The story had paused mid-duel — a swashbuckling rogue deflecting blaster bolts with a vibroblade while the heroine dangled from a transport cable above a canyon. Ayame had imagined herself there, as she often did. Wind in her hair. Courage in her bones.

But she wasn't dangling over a canyon. She was walking through the upper gardens of one of the many beautiful parks of Atrisia's capital.

The path wound gently along the edge of a pond, where willow branches touched the water like brushstrokes. Koi flicked their tails beneath the surface. Petals floated lazily, spiraling in the current like thoughts she hadn't caught in time.

Ayame paused. The stone path widened here, bordered by moss and low wooden benches. The air smelled faintly of rain, though it had not fallen. For a moment, she stood completely still — and then, as she often did when her heart felt too full, she murmured aloud to herself.

"The pond forgets me
but the blossoms do not stop
drifting where I go..."

The Atrisian-styled poem escaped like a sigh. A way to turn feeling into form.

She exhaled.

And then she noticed the figure at the water's edge.

A woman — no, a girl close to her own age — kneeling at the pond, her posture still but heavy, as though time sat upon her shoulders. There was something unfamiliar about her. Her features were beautiful in a way Ayame couldn't quite place.

Their eyes met.

Ayame's heart skipped.

She startled, just slightly, and took a half-step back, hand instinctively rising to adjust her glasses even though they were perfectly in place. Her face flushed with warmth, and the silence that followed was somehow louder than her poem had been.

"I—" she stammered gently, bowing her head. "I didn't see you there. Forgive me. I didn't mean to disturb..."

Her voice was soft. The wind carried it like silk. And yet it was clear she had meant every word — not just the apology, but the feeling behind it.

She lingered there, caught between embarrassment and curiosity.

Beneath it all, a thread tugged at her, a quiet sense that she had just stumbled into a moment meant to change something. Even if she didn't yet know what.

 

[Reina Daival]

Tag: Ayame Tsukihana
Location: Atrisia

Her hand continued to drift lazily through the water, her eyes never leaving the reflection staring back at her. She was oblivious to the fact she had an audience right now. Far too busy being contained in her own mind at her first as her fingers brushed against various petals laying in the water. Leaves from the trees, falling so slow. She sighed to herself at that thought. Reina had heard stories about how blossoms were meant to be healing in some way. Their beauty was meant to uplift the heart but when Reina looked at them, all she saw was...leaves. They weren't anything special. Either way, her attention finally lifted from the water to spot someone looking at her. Someone who appeared similar to her own age...but when you think about all of the alien species in the Galaxy, it's possible they could be one of those long lived species.

All the same, Reina gave an awkward smile, holding both of her hands up into the air. A universal signal of "My Bad" at the end of the day as Reina pushed herself up to her feet, brushing the dirt and dust off her knees carefully. Strangers weren't exactly something that Reina dealt well with. Even before she had been changed, Reina was never the most talkative or good with strangers. At the very least, she wasn't being as ignorant as she normally would be, by shrugging off the woman's presence. Instead Reina just stood there awkwardly, trying to decide if she wanted to just leave without saying anything...but there was just something about the stranger that insisted Reina stayed here. Just for a few more moments.

"...You don't need to be sorry. It's not...your fault. You weren't disturbing me. I promise."

Reina internally cringed as she spoke. She had to try and avoid from speaking in a way that would influence someone. But it was the truth in her eyes, the stranger hadn't been bothering her. They had no reason to be sorry about any of this. She just took in a short breath and made her way over towards the stranger, holding her hand out carefully.

"I'm Reina." ​

 

[Ayame Tsukihana]

Tag: Reina Daival

Ayame blinked in surprise as the girl raised her hands — a harmless, almost sheepish gesture — before standing to brush herself off. She hadn't expected the stranger to engage, let alone cross the distance between them. Most would have turned away, avoided the moment entirely. Ayame certainly had, on more than one occasion.

But this girl... Reina. She was unlike anyone Ayame had seen before. Tall, strong in posture, yet... uncertain around the edges. There was a weight in her gaze. A shadow. But no harshness. When she spoke, her voice was gentle — melodic, even — but not in the way Ayame expected. It was too smooth, too soft, too... shaped, as though the words had been carved rather than spoken. It was beautiful, and strange, and for a moment Ayame wasn't sure if she had imagined it.

She froze as Reina's hand extended toward her, delicate and open. It hovered like a question. Ayame bowed her head in the humble way she had been taught since childhood, and reached out with both hands to receive it, not just to shake, but to honour the offering. Her fingertips were warm, careful and reverent.

"Ayame," she said in return quietly. "It's a pleasure, Reina."

There was a pause, the kind that could have become awkward, but didn't. Not quite. Ayame let it breathe.

"Isn't it lovely here? I often come here when I need to think," she continued gently, brushing her robe smooth with one hand. Her eyes drifted toward the pond again. A small, honest smile bloomed at the corners of her mouth, though she still couldn't hold Reina's gaze for long. There was something in those eyes — a weight, yes, but also a softness that made Ayame feel strangely exposed.

She reached into her book bag, pulling out a small parcel wrapped in soft patterned cloth. Inside were several sweet glutinous rice cakes — pastel colours dusted with rice flour, clearly homemade, soft and perfect.

"I was going to offer these to the pond," she said with a quiet laugh. "But I think the spirits have had enough sweets for one morning." She extended one toward Reina, both hands open, offering not just a treat, but a moment of peace. Then, she continued.

"You are... an off-worlder?"

Her tone wasn't prying. Just... curious, perhaps even excited, at the prospect of meeting another such person from beyond the stars, far away from this place she knew too well.

 

[Reina Daival]

Tag: Ayame Tsukihana
Location: Atrisia

Reina was caught off guard by the way that Ayame seemed to take her hand and bow. It was almost like one of those princesses she used to hear about in her childhood. But that wasn't real. Those stories of Knights, and Kings, and Princesses were just a childhood fairy tale. As much as Reina wanted to be a Knight, she knew it was near enough impossible.

"The pleasure is mine. You are right about it being...lovely here. It's helped to calm my mind."

She didn't know why she was talking. Why she felt so comfortable with it. But there was just something...disarming about Ayame. Something about her made Reina feel as if she didn't need to worry about those things. That she didn't need to worry about her voice. How she looked. What she was. It was strange but...Reina liked it. A small smile flickering up on her face as her eyes were still focused on Ayame. Ayame might have struggled to hold Reina's gaze...but the same was not said for Reina.

Her eyes flickered towards the rice cakes for a moment. There was something that Reina hadn't quite experienced herself. Whilst she had been trying out various different types of food since her change...Rice based products hadn't been something that Reina had tried as she took one of them carefully, gently brushing her hand against Ayame's hand and lowering her head in thanks. And with that, Reina nibbled away at the cakes, letting out a soft content sigh as she felt the taste almost explode. There was something about home-made food that was delicious.

"Delicious. Thank you, I appreciate the gift Ayame."

And with that, Reina turned her attention off ahead of herself to look at the pond as Ayame spoke. Off-worlder. Well. That was obvious enough in Reina's eyes as she let out a soft chuckle, running her thumb over her own hand for a moment in thought.

"You could say that. I'm...a bit of a nomad. I don't have a home."

The Temple on Coruscant was near enough gone. Tython had never felt like a home. The ship she had been raised on was gone. Her birth planet was controlled by the Imperials. And even though she had found her family, it wasn't like that was a home either. No. Truly, Reina had no home. Yet...that didn't bother her. She moved from place to place and she was happy for it.

"I've never seen a planet like this before. It's calm. Peaceful. Good...for the Spirt."​

 

[Ayame Tsukihana]

Tag: Reina Daival

Ayame bowed her head, a gentle smile curling at her lips. Her sleeves slipped slightly as she did, soft silk shifting with the motion. She wasn't used to people accepting her gifts so warmly. The gesture had always been instinct — part of her upbringing, perhaps — but it rarely left her feeling seen. Reina's thanks did.

When Reina spoke about her lack of a home, Ayame didn't speak at first. Her gaze dropped to the water again, watching where the light trembled over the fish, the blossoms. It was quiet for a few seconds, and then she spoke.

"I see…"

The words came softly, almost under her breath, like she wasn't sure she should be saying anything at all. Her hands folded in her lap as she sat, legs tucked neatly to one side on the grass beside Reina.

"It must be… lonely. But also…" Her voice faltered, uncertain. "I don't know. Free?"

She tilted her head a little, not quite looking at her, just past her, toward the pond. Her brows drew together in the smallest frown, like she was trying to puzzle out a thought too big to hold. She tucked a loose thread back into her sleeve. It gave her something to do with her hands.

"I've... never even left Atrisia before..."

She let out a breath of a laugh, thin and almost self-mocking.

"It is peaceful here, yes… but... I wouldn't really know otherwise..."

Her voice quieted again. She didn't look at Reina when she said it, but part of her hoped Reina would look back.

 

[Reina Daival]

Tag: Ayame Tsukihana
Location: Atrisia

She leaned against the ground, holding her arms out behind herself as Reina turned her view over towards the clouds as they moved past. Her gaze had moved away from the pond right now. Her thoughts were wondering. Meandering as she took in what Ayame was saying. The more the Atrisian spoke...the more she sounded like a stereotypical princess, from the stories she heard as a kid. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing as she smirked to herself

"I guess it is freeing. It is definitely lone. It's...hard to figure out a purpose. Feeling adrift like a leaf on the waves, being carried off into an aimless direction."

Her smirk faded from her face however at the laughter that Ayame produced. It didn't feel...honest. The laugh felt as if it had been forced, as Reina turned her head to look over towards Ayame, before twisting herself around so that she'd lay across the ground, resting atop of her elbows and gazing over towards Ayame, a singular eyebrow raised.

"Is there...any reason you have to stay here?"

There was a variety of thoughts going behind Reina's eyes as she debated to herself, chewing on her lip. She wasn't exactly used to being social. There was option in her mind, of offering to take Ayame off world somewhere...but that seemed a bit sudden. Instead, there was the other alternative.

"I can always tell you stories about what I've gotten up to on other planets. Fishing trips, facing battles of life or death. Maybe you could live vicariously through them..."

Heh. Look at Reina. Using big words like vicariously. She was getting better at using fancy words than she expected.​