Private Please don't say Bakura if you don't mean it

[Kirie]

'Oh.' Kirie signed. That certainly put the conversation into more context. Maybe it was the booze she had swigged rushing to her head, but the pieces had taken an embarassingly long time to come together. Finally though, with In's explanation she finally felt like she knew what was going on.

'You're a Miraluka, then?' Kirie asked. 'I've read about your people in stories but never met one before. I'm sorry for the confusion, I come from a pretty small place.' Hopefully, that would suffice for enough of an explanation to account for her general slowness.

Thankfully, Kirie soon realised that there was ample distraction to be found on the subject of plants. She looked back and forth as both In and Niysha launched into explanations of their botanical interests. For In, it seemed like a scientific, or at least culinary interest. Whereas for Niysha, she seemed more interested in acquiring the plant for the purposes of collecting, and restoring what was lost.

'It's a shame your collection was stolen. Sounds like it was quite the sight.' Kirie signed, her expression sympathetic.

The plant that the pair of them were describing did sound kind of familiar to Kirie, she just couldn't quite place how. Was it that she'd seen it somewhere? That didn't seem quite right, but she'd spent some time listlessly flipping through flimsiplast brochures at the spaceport, so maybe that was it. Whatever the case, she didn't see any harm in joining their hunt for awhile, and maybe walking around would even jog her memory.

'Well, I'd feel better about what you're doing for me if I helped you find what you're looking for.' Kirie signed. That was definitely true. If In wouldn't accept any payment the least she could do is offer her effort and her brain, such as it was. That was it then. Kirie would help find the Bakuran Fire Philodendron and earn her way to Tython. Then she would consider the matter settled.

'Just let me get my bag.' Kirie signed. She sidled her way around the chair, wrapping the strap around her fingers and lifting it up. As she did, a flash of colour caught her eye, and Kirie looked down to see what she had revealed.

A crushed red stem poking out the sand.

Belonging to a tiny, easily missed plant shoot that she had karking squished.

Oh... Oh no.

She could make no sound of horror or shock or frustration. There was just a puff of air, but still it carried the feeling.

Niysha | In Rhan ​

 

[In Rhan]

As disappointed as Kirie was, In was THRILLED! The Pantoran woman lit up when Kirie lifted her bag and revealed the crushed little sprout. "Oh! This is!" In glanced up towards Niysha and gestured to the space between herself and her partner, then the plant, grinning ear-to-ear. "One of those THINGS! That you talk about!" She chirped excitedly.

Composed smuggler? Elegant woman at the beach? Gone. We plant dork now.

Still sitting, In started digging through her bag and came up with a small glass jar and a trowel. The jaw hissed as she opened it up, breaking the seal. "Luckily, with most philodendrons? You just need a node and a stem to propogate with." She explained idly, carefully working the trowel into the sandy soil around the crushed sprout. "Not QUITE as convenient as rhizomes, but close." In had the care of a surgeon, the sort of precision she only brought to bear when piloting and gardening.

Before long, she had a small clump of soil with some roots holding it loosely together - and one mostly-squished shoot. "...this little one will PROBABLY be fine." The Pantoran woman speculated. "But I'd like to find a healthier specimen for a proper stem cut, if I can - just in case. I don't think this little one was going to make it for very long anyway. High-traffic area like this, loose soil and sand. One storm or high tide and it'd be gone."

In carefully cleaned the roots off, added the shoot to her specimin jar, and filled it with a nutrient-rich hydro solution to encourage further root growth and development until she could get it into a hydroponics tray. "Normally I wouldn't do this, due to root shock - but I don't think this one can be much more traumatized than it already is. Let's see if we can find another? Yes?"

Kirie | Niysha

 

[Niysha]

The fun part about seeing the Destinies of all things was that sometimes you still got to be surprised. Kirie was full of Destiny, like In; it was bleeding off of her like sheeting rain, occupying the area around her with an only slightly softer presence than a properly trained Force-user. That sort of presence perfectly concealed other things within the umbrella of its aura when they were small and insignificant enough... but the exact plant they were looking for in this exact place was significant on its own. Because, like "one of those things she talked about," finding what you were looking for in the place you least expected to find it was not luck, or chance; those things didn't exist.

There was only the Force.

Niysha grinned and furnished In with the small wild vegetation care kit that she'd zipped up in the other side of their bag. Her hands were busy soon after, fully comfortable and with all of the dust brushed off of her decent ORSL vocabulary. "Root shock is basically just what it sounds like," she explained as In got to work. "A plant removed from its soil might die even if the new soil it's housed in is suitable. Effectively, any damage or disorientation to roots during transplanting can negatively affect the health of a plant. It's normally recoverable, but sometimes we lose them."

Hmm. "Heal" worked well enough for "recover" there, right? Maybe she did still need some work. Having Kirie around was going to be a big help there, if her spontaneously sitting on the exact plant they were looking for wasn't blessing enough. When In was finished, Niysha took the pod and the kit and returned them to their places in their bag, then fluffed her hair a bit and fixed her sunglasses. Now, more than most times, she longed for the security of her blindfold. At least that could be tied in a knot.

"It helps to be able to see what the plant looks like, too. It'll be easier to find now." Hands on her hips, the Miraluka stood and cocked her head to one side, concentrating. Her vision expanded well beyond its resting range, passing over dozens of forgettable, dull people and their lives of quiet anxiety. One more Force-sensitive on the beach, actually. That was pretty rare, even if the spark was distinctly weak. Still, it was a distraction from...

Ah. There. "About eighty meters up the beach, another twenty or so up a path on the left away from the shoreline. It looks pretty similar to this one."

Kirie | In Rhan

 

[Kirie]

In was smiling. Why was she smiling? Maybe it was one of those things where somebody grins manically right before they strangle you or like where they're smiling but they're actually smiling because they're thinking about how they're about to strangle you and hey come to think of it wasn't there a little bit of a gleeful murderous glint in In's eye and also wasn't it weird that these two had just happened to approach her and maybe this was actually a big setup and either way she was about to get her chit rocked because she had crushed the one thing the pair had brought with them with her big stupid bag?

"Oh! This is!" In glanced up towards Niysha and gestured to the space between herself and her partner, then the plant, grinning ear-to-ear. "One of those THINGS! That you talk about!"

Ok. Or not.

So In had reacted with unexpected enthusiasm. That made a sort of sense, when she thought about it. It was a funny coincidence that the thing they were seeking was hiding in the vicinity of the random woman they had stopped to check in on out of the kindness of their hearts. It was just a shame she had left it in such a state. Kirie turned her head towards Niysha expecting her to dish out at least some disapproval if In wasn't going to.

"Root shock is basically just what it sounds like,"

Wrong again. Where was the admonishment, the anger, the rejection of the niceties that had come before? It was those that Kirie had come to expect. The way they were reacting was just, confusing. Kirie stared at the both of them for a few moments, dumbfounded, before finally letting out a slow, relieved exhale.

'Holy chit. You two are the most chilled-out people I have met in my entire life.'

Thankfully, In and Niysha were also well prepared, tucking the bruised plant into a container where it might have a chance of fighting back to life. Another reason to be thankful the two of them found her, for surely otherwise the little red sprout would have been left alone to die, with nobody around to pay attention to it.

"About eighty meters up the beach, another twenty or so up a path on the left away from the shoreline. It looks pretty similar to this one."

That was more good news. Kirie offered a shaky smile, even though she still felt a little rattled. Finding an adult specimen of the plant would be a good distraction from her embarassment, and give In and Niysha something a little more substantial to take back to their ship. It was amazing that Niysha had been able to detect it from its signature alone. She didn't know much about the Miraluka or their sight through the Force, but the feat was impressive any way you spun it.

'Lead the way.' signed Kirie, falling into step as they trudged up towards the dunes by the shore. As they walked Kirie wondered about In and Niysha's ship, which was large enough to haul freight and hold a large garden in its belly. She had heard it was good luck to name a vessel before committing it to sailing the void. That was probably just superstition, but In seemed like the kind of person who'd listen to superstition. Maybe it had some sort of botanical name. The Verdant, or the Red Rose. 'So, your ship, with the garden, does it have a name?'

In Rhan | Niysha ​

 

[In Rhan]

'Holy chit. You two are the most chilled-out people I have met in my entire life.'

That comment made In laugh in astonishment. She glanced at Niysha incredulously, then gestured between herself and her partner. "Us?" She asked with a smirk. "You must not've met very many people, then. I'm not that chilled out, especially when I start getting political." The Pantoran woman promised as she got to her feet. She took a moment to sling her bag over her shoulder, adjusted her wide brimmed hat, and took stock of herself. Her buzz had diminished down to a low thrum, she was mostly sober. Feeling a little too warm. Beaches were like that when your resting comfort temperature was down near freezing. Unfortunately, she was all out of margarita. She gave Kirie a moment to collect her stuff.

"If I seem dis proportionally relaxed, it's because you did nothing wrong. The plant was never mine, and even if it was it'll probably be fine. And even if it wasn't, you had no idea. There's more of them out there" In added as she adjusted her sandals and began walking. "There's no cause to get all huffy about it."

As they began walking up the beach, In flashed Niysha a grin over her shoulder. "I'm never, ever going to get tired of you finding stuff like that." The Pantoran woman crooned. "Legitimately mystifying to me how you see the world. In that it is factually mystical, I get it. But I love it." In chuckled, tapping Niysha's hip with her own as they walked beside each other. "If there's a few specimins up there, let's fill our jars - we can spare a half-dozen spots between the trays by the Galley, maybe start a little breeding program? Might be a lucrative little side-hustle." Smuggling a controlled lifeform off of the planet for her own garden? In didn't even hesitate. Customs & contraband laws were pretend nonsense. It'd taken her all of twenty minutes to spin her hobby into a potential revenue stream / rare plant distribution system.

'So, your ship, with the garden, does it have a name?'

In gave a short, barking laugh of embarassed surprise. "Oh - yes. It does. The Dancer in Green." She explained with a faint smile. "The man who sold me the ship was a fan. He gave me a discount when I let him name it." The Pantoran woman elaborated sheepishly. "I personally don't like naming objects, I think the whole practice is a little silly and superstitious. But he was a sweetheart, and I probably couldn't have bought the ship without that twenty percent off of the top. Before I bought it, it was called Quentin's Despair or something like that."

 

[Niysha]

Kirie might have been the first person Niysha had ever heard explicitly refer to her as "chilled-out" to her face. Granted, she was relaxed in the extreme at the moment; no one on Bakura posed a genuine threat to her, she was among her people in at least two different ways, and full of fermented cactus. It would've been hard for her to be more chill without being asleep or dead. Still, sometimes it took her by surprise just how much more calm and fulfilling her life had become since she'd met In.

As per usual, the Miraluka quickly brushed off any praise or compliments and hung on the next subject of conversation like a life raft. "I hear most plants are green," she offered quietly as she led the three of them off towards their next find, up the beach and on the right. "I don't think the ship was named with that in mind, so it's pretty poetic that it matches." Any kind of poetic resonance, of course, was complete conjecture on her part. Niysha was aware at some level that green meant "fresh" or "alive." Also, for some reason, "good to go?" Or "safe?" There were a lot of fragmented, seemingly unrelated messages for just one color.

Visible light was a complete mystery and she was far too tipsy to contemplate it.

The walkway the three of them took away from the beach was gently paved with some cute little fences on either side to segregate the vegetation from the sand and stone. Niysha's path was never obstructed by oncoming foot traffic, and she stepped perfectly step over every crack, stone, or crevice in their way; hopefully she'd impart a bit of that ease onto her companions by taking the lead. Both of them were probably a little precognizant, even if they didn't realize that was what was happening.

Bogan, she'd need to talk to In about that sometime. If it came up in conversation, she'd have no idea how to even broach the subject. Long ago she'd noticed that sighted people, even with Force training, had a difficult time noticing Force sensitivity in others. Hopefully Kirie was too untrained to pick up on In's spark. Honestly, she might not even be aware of her own. The Sith weren't known for their compassionate and inclusive public education program.

Ah, plant. Niysha wandered to a stop around a small garden feature that looked like it was up for its weekly tending, judging by the tall grass and uneven vegetation. She didn't make a move immediately, since there were still people immediately nearby. Instead, she crossed her arms and nodded slightly to the bushes in need of a slight shave. "Down between those two. See it?"

It was absolutely surrounded by flowers.

Kirie | In Rhan

 

[Kirie]

Walking up from the beach, their feet began to sink deeper into the sand. It was hard going carrying her bags, but she tried not to show it as she fought to keep pace with In and Niysha. In particularly, with her tall, lithe body and lanky legs was striding along with relative ease, and even the shorter Niysha didn't seem to be foundering the same way Kirie was. Thankfully for her, the ground soon hardened and levelled out, and the found themselves walking along a coastline path with tended beds of vegetation. The air was more still here, the sun continued to beat down and Kirie felt sweat beading on her brow and temples.

"I personally don't like naming objects, I think the whole practice is a little silly and superstitious. But he was a sweetheart, and I probably couldn't have bought the ship without that twenty percent off of the top. Before I bought it, it was called Quentin's Despair or something like that."

Kirie raised a brow at that. Spacers, as she understood them, were superstitious as a rule. In though, seemed more than happy not to conform to stereotypes, and Kirie felt another of her preconceived notions shattering. This journey beyond Sith space was already paying off in terms of education, if nothing else. There were a couple of thing that were interesting in the name as well. One of them was wondering what happened to 'Quentin', but it was something else that caught her attention.

'You were a dancer?' Kirie asked, putting two and two together. Probably a little too forward, but whatever. In seemed friendly and open to questions. 'That's quite a career change.' Maybe that was the reason the Pantoran seemed unlike the other spacers she'd met, all of whom seemed to fit neatly into the archetypal boxes. It was interesting, as someone who felt trapped by circumstances and stuck in place, to consider that In must have dramatically upturned her life at some point.

Kirie smiled at Niysha's comment. 'Where I am from, yes. But, I recently found out from a friend of mine that on Dathomir, almost every plant is as red as our Fire Philodendron.' Maybe, if they found enough, Kirie could convince In and Niysha to part with one of the cuttings. No doubt it would make a fine addition to Kaila Irons 's crimson garden on Echnos.

The trio slowed to a stop a few paces from a garden bed, on the other side of which a young couple were talking animatedly. Kirie did he best to follow Niysha's lead and act nonchalant as they sidled up to the bed. It did not take long for Kirie to notice what Niysha was talking about, and when she did her eyes widened in surprise.

Kirie stared, agape, at the numerous stems hanging heavy with trumpet-like blooms, each one a small gradient reflecting the most vibrant of sunsets, but captured and replicated on a thousand days from a thousand angles, with a vibrant yellow-orange heart that spread into shades of mauve and bronze and crimson towards the edge of the flowers. The blooms were so large and numerous they almost entirely surrounded the body of the plant, creating an almost unreal splotch of colour that reminded Kirie of an artists' dropped palette.

And yet, move back a step or two and the brilliant piece of flora was almost entirely hidden by the scraggly overgrown bushes that had been planted as ground cover, and the thick grass that had long since grown unkempt. A rare beauty hiding in plain sight.

'Well. I see why they call it that now.' signed Kirie, still looking at the plant with wonder.

Niysha | In Rhan ​

 

[In Rhan]

'You were a dancer?' Kirie asked, putting two and two together. Probably a little too forward, but whatever. In seemed friendly and open to questions. 'That's quite a career change.'

In had to laugh at that, walking backwards a couple of steps. She was exceedingly well coordinated, practically floating across the ground - especially when showing off. "Careers are for schlubs." The Pantoran crooned proudly. "I was born on a ship, I grew up in a fleet. I don't consider freight my 'career', it's just what I do to pay the bills so I can keep doing the things I want to do."

She began walking normally again, keeping pace between Niysha and Kirie - so she could watch Kirie's hands moving. In didn't understand the gestures yet, but she wouldn't ever if she didn't study them. Besides, there was something magical about the way the tattooed woman's hands moved with such fluid certainty and speed, it made them almost hypnotic. "But. between the time I left the nest and bought the Dancer, I made my way doing short-hop freight for Blastech on Fondor up until... four or five years ago?" In speculated aloud. "But that paid peanuts and it wasn't consistent, so I did some... 'dancing' on the side. I'm actually pretty good at it, and it was the extra credit I needed to go into business as an owner-operator."

Ah, plant. Niysha wandered to a stop around a small garden feature that looked like it was up for its weekly tending, judging by the tall grass and uneven vegetation. She didn't make a move immediately, since there were still people immediately nearby. Instead, she crossed her arms and nodded slightly to the bushes in need of a slight shave. "Down between those two. See it?"

Ahh, Philodendrons. Big, leafy monstrosities that they were, the provided a fantastic framework for other plans to thrive. In took a furtive look around, spotting the other people - any of whom could be a busybody game warden or some other silly thing. "Keep me covered.' She requested quietly, taking a knee to adjust her sandals. In retrieved a bottle of water from Niysha's duffel and sat down near the flowers, holding it to her forhead to sell the image of being overheated and needing a moment to rest in the shade. Which wasn't hard, considering how hot out it was and how she'd been teetering on the edge of overheated all day. A good beach should be somewhere between 4-10c, not whatever ungodly temperature this hell was.

Hiding behind her wide-brimmed hat, In snaked a hand into the bushes and began snipping branches and stems, depositing them into her water bottle. They could be transfered to the specimin jars later.

 

[Niysha]

Ah, operation start. Niysha gave a quiet nod and turned around, crossing her arms as she visibly looked out over the path in front of them. There was an overlook above and only one set of stairs that would connect to their route from this angle, so that wouldn't be hard to cover. Foot traffic was low but not zero, and most people - tourist or native - didn't have any interest in approaching a bunch of randos and their talkative droid. The only issues would be with security.

Inside of Niysha's comfortable range, there weren't a lot of droids, and the few that were seemed to be in service positions. Good. That meant that there probably weren't any security droids to deal with. That made things extremely easy.

Many of the abilities that people attributed to Force wizards were fantastical and eye-catching: levitation, lightning, the ability to leap several meters straight up or weather a storm of blaster fire completely unharmed. Still others were less theatrical, but still very well-known. Most people knew a Jedi could play with your mind, for instance, and that you couldn't lie to them because they could just feel it. That sort of publicity made it complicated to stay undercover at times.

Fortunately, Niysha had a great amount of practice in much softer, less obvious, much less well-known arts. As she moved closer to In, the Miraluka tapped her ankle against her partner's and let it rest there. Physical contact made it easier to feel In's presence more completely, with more of herself. Just seeing was fine for most things, but being so close and connected physically as well as metaphysically meant that, just for a few moments, Niysha's own presence could engulf In's, to a degree.

After that, it was all old hat; a masking her aura in irrelevance and mundanity was something so natural to Niysha that it bordered on reflexive. Visually, the two were still entirely unobscured... they just didn't matter. Easily forgettable. Utterly benign. Hopefully that would give In enough time to do her thing unperturbed.

As she focused slightly on covering their little legerdemain, Niysha raised a single finger to her lips in a silent "shh" to Kirie, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Kirie | In Rhan

 

[Kirie]

Kirie nodded admiringly as In proudly explained her views on her spacing life. Kirie had never really had a 'career' either, but the way In used her work as a vehicle to pursue what she wanted was interesting. Kirie briefly wondered if there was a way she could use her excellent feather dusting and floor waxing skills to the same end, but decided it didn't seem very practical. Besides, who needs a business when they have a Princess to pay a stipend?

Though she was loath to admit it, Kirie found In's mention of her dancing enticing as well, and she felt a small twinge of envy at In's confidence and assuredness, which itself was immediately followed by the overwhelming desire to push that feeling down.

Kirie pressed on.

'What sort of things do you want to do?' Kirie asked. 'Aside from collect plants?'

There were very few things that Kirie could ever say she had a gift for, but blending in and doing a bit were two of them. On In's request to cover her and Niysha's signed 'shh' - something Kirie would have no trouble with any day of the week - she gave an answering grin and assumed her role as the bored-looking tourist, even going to the trouble of pretending to adjust the tie on her bikini top, which was actually being pretty annoying. As Kirie did so, she stepped a little closer to Niysha, blocking In from the view of anyone who might come down the path. Their boring-ness must have been pretty convincing, because the even the couple of people who had spared them disinterested glances when they had stopped by the garden were now moving along, continuing their own conversations. She had a funny feeling as well, as though a bubble had been put up around them, but she couldn't figure out why, and when she found herself wondering about it, Kirie found her mind kept wandering. Strange.

When In was finished and had stood up, Kirie flashed the pair a conspiratorial smile. This was actually kinda fun.

'We make quite a team.' Kirie said. 'I've never done a plant heist before.' Well, that was if standing around getting sunburnt on a nowhere planet in the Rim counted as a plant heist. Whatever. It was close enough, and her threshold for causing trouble was pretty low.

'Got what you needed?'

Niysha | In Rhan ​

 

[In Rhan]

'What sort of things do you want to do?' Kirie asked. 'Aside from collect plants?'

In flashed a smile, catching the translation via droid since she was shoulders-deep in the brush. "What do you mean?" She laughed. "This. This is what I want to do."

In came out of the brush with a satisfied huff, wiping sweat and a caterpillar off of her brow. With a bottle full of stem cuts, she'd be able to grow just about as many philodendrons as she wanted - which was great! Niysha liked spicy food, and Bakura had maintained a monopoly on the gorgeous red-and-green leaves for far too long. Sitting back on her heels as she got situated, In fussed with her thick white hair before she pulled her wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses back on. "Seeing the galaxy with the people I love. Helping everyone I can. Doing dope chit. Cool plants. What higher calling could there be?"

"Also! Not a heist until we're home free." In laughed. "Until then, it's just sparkling larceny."

With Niysha's help, In got back to her feet and secreted the bottle away in the duffel bag. "That should be enough stems to not have to worry too much about a stable population." The Pantoran woman half-crooned, grinning ear to ear. "Of course, it's curtains if anyone looks in the bag. So I'm thinking we swing by a grocery store for some food dye and edible glitter, make that bottle look like some opaque, fruity liquor and get the hell off this oven of a planet ASAP." In proposed cheerfully, hooking an arm around one of each of her companion's arms. "Possibly celebrate with opaque, fruity liquor and quesadillas."

 

[Niysha]

Annnd they were done. Niysha moved away and breathed easy when she saw In stand with a bag full of beautiful bushes, fluffing her hair out and fixing her sunglasses for what had to have been the fourth time since meeting Kirie. "We spend a lot of our time indulging in our passions," she added to In's babble. "There's an entire room on the Dancer full to bursting with weird old rocks." Funny way of saying holocrons, datacrons, and recovered stone reliefs.

Attached to In by the arm, Niysha maintained pace as the Pantoran dragged the two of them off towards a few of the boardwalk shops. It wouldn't be hard to find something to make for an interesting dinner tonight, at the very least. "Similarly, food tourism. I don't think we've gone anywhere without intentionally looking for something interesting to eat there." Here, at least, it was a few fun plants that might make a good pepper when dried out. And maybe some loopy local drink.

Actually, come to think of it, they'd met in a diner. A trashy diner on a trashy station full of zombies, but still.

"I hope you're hungry," the Miraluka offered to Kirie from across the spanse of In Rhan between them. "It'd be far too optimistic to promise organic food for every meal, but we eat a lot less nutrient paste than a lot of spacers do." And all of that because of In's gardening hobby. Honestly, Niysha would've been fine with paste; she had been for years upon years. In was absolutely spoiling her at this point.

Kirie | In Rhan