First Reply Sunny spot

[Zaytee]

As the young Kiir laid half asleep on top of a spaceship, watching the crowd walking beneath on the busy streets while her tail moved slowly, showing that even in this situation she was alert. Since she arrived at this planet a few weeks ago, thanks to a lucky hitchhiking session with another ship, the big, open square where all the ships parked before returning to the stars became her favorite spot.

Every day, as the sun reached its highest point on the sky, Zaytee sneakingly crawled up on top of a random space vehicle, curling up and resting on the warm surface like a giant cat. The pleasant warmth radiating from under her quickly eased her tensed muscles, lulling her into a light sleep. It reminded her of her home, the white cliffs that emerged out of the dense forest like sun bleached bones, making the perfect spot for a good afternoon sleep that she always happily did with all the little hatchlings around, taking care of them while the others went out hunting some wild beasts or gathering edible roots and fruits.

But this day somehow felt different.

The crowd below seemed unusually lively and loud, and even after trying to fall asleep for almost an hour, she couldn't do it. She moved around uncomfortably, trying to see if any other sleeping position would help her, but in the end, she just gave up.

"Oh for the love of the gods..." She muttered quietly, rolling onto her back and lifting her arm to cover her eyes from the strong sunlight from above, tail flicking around restlessly.

 

[Delphi Larkspur]

Spaceport
Tags: Zaytee

Delphi had her head down in her datapad as she wobbled her way through the busy spaceport. Director Akar Rhonvogg had been preparing to send the Phoenix Initiative to Refuge to link up with Jedi allies who had helped civilians escape the core following the fall of the Galactic Alliance. That made things very busy, and she had been tasked with finding suppliers to help with the development process. As a charitable organization, helping build settlements was very new to them. This planet had some leads on ironwood. A bit rudimentary, but certainly pleasant for furniture. It was something, and she didn't want to come home empty handed.

Of course, the young woman was terribly scatterbrained. She had lost track of the time and was now trying to quickly find something else that the people of Refuge may need. Was it maybe her own fault? Perhaps, but somebody needed to catch and identify all of those birds...

No, it was definitely her fault.

Her nose was fully squirreled away in her in her datapad now, and she wasn't remotely paying attention to where she was going. She had sort of just been following the flow of traffic through the port, but one wrong turn and...

THUNK

She walked head first into a starship. Her poor balance all but ensured she fell square on her bottom.

"Ah..." Delphi sighed, her lavender face becoming a dark purple. "That... makes sense."

Her head was fine. She hit it a lot. It was more the embarrassment of how clumsy she was that caused the most pain. Hopefully nobody really noticed...

 

[Zaytee]

With a deep sigh, Zaytee rolled back onto her stomach, watching the crowd underneath with slow glances, her gaze running along countless of different species and robots with a slight interest. It was still too new and too foreign for her, all the different kind of bipedal, slippery, or crawling races were all so unfamiliar compared to her homeplanet, and the many language that they spoke around made her head hurt.

She watched some mechanics as they repaired the engines of a ship, then as merchants argued about their prices next to their goods, and only yawned while a smaller spacecraft's crew started arguing about the route they should take to their next stop.

"Maybe I should join them this time... this place is already so dull." She mumbled to herself, but in the next moment, her tail flicked around at an unusual sight.

A creature wobbled between the ships, randomly changing direction and almost bumping into others a few times, completely oblivious of their environment, while their face was buried in a strange device, restricting their vision.

The young Kiir watched the person with her head tilted slightly to the side, curiosity surfacing slowly, then as the creature came closer to the ship she was sunbathing on, Zaytee jumped up, approaching the edge of the spaceship to see their way further below.

THUNK

She heard in the next moment, and even while she tried to hold it back, a small cackle erupted from her as she witnessed the creature's unfortunate backwards fall.

"Umm... hey, are you alright?" She asked a second later, clinging to the ship's edge with her head upside down.

Delphi Larkspur

 

[Delphi Larkspur]

Spaceport
Tags: Zaytee

"Umm... hey, are you alright?" She asked a second later, clinging to the ship's edge with her head upside down.

And someone noticed. Just her luck. They seemed to be on top of the vessel, hanging down to speak to her. She couldn't have even predicted that someone would be up there.

"I'm perfectly fine," Delphi insisted with a soft huff. "I can assure you that my head is quite robust."

The young woman awkwardly wobbled up to stand on what were essentially her feet, really just repurposed flippers of sorts, and began to brush herself off. Her datapad seemed undamaged in the ordeal, at least. She'd rather not have to explain to Director Rhonvogg that she had broken another one of those things. Her eyes drifted back up to assess the woman who had seen her misfortune. Horn, and the end of a tail that seemed to flick over the edge. She really didn't know what to make of that. It wasn't a species she had seen before.

Then again, not many knew what Delphi was either. It wasn't much of a deal ultimately.

"Apologies for disturbing you," the young Mud-Walker sighed, reaching up to adjust her hat. "I'm afraid I'm a bit scatterbrained at the moment. I'm usually much better put together."

Not really, but she wasn't exactly in the mood to tell a stranger she was a clumsy, air-headed mess.

 

[Zaytee]

Looking at the other's 'legs' a little bit more closely, the Kiir hands slipped slightly on the metal surface from the surprise. The unusual sight of them could have given her even more shock, but with the so many species around, she wasn't sure if the woman's look was anything out of the ordinary. Maybe her species was common, and it was only out of sheer luck that she hasn't seen one already.

"Hmm... It's alright." She muttered quietly, thinking for a short moment before she flipped over the edge, jumping down to the ground in a safe distance from Delphi.

Standing up, she took a closer look at the blonde creature, taking a small sniff of the air to identify her, but seemingly her previous thoughts were wrong. She surely never smelled anybody from her species, and by sight, she became sure that she never even seen one.

The purplish skin color was not that unusual, the crowds of this planet was quite colorful, and even on her homeplanet there were others with more blue or green looking skin color... but the appendages in the place of her legs appeared special, making a bunch of questions bubble up in Zaytee's mind, with the most important being... 'Does it hurt to stand on those things?'

"You were not disturbing... Or at least I don't think so." She shrugged her shoulders. "But if you don't feel well, maybe you should sit down for a bit. The weather is already too hot to do anything."

Delphi Larkspur

 

[Delphi Larkspur]

Spaceport
Tags: Zaytee

"But if you don't feel well, maybe you should sit down for a bit. The weather is already too hot to do anything."

"Hng.... maybe that isn't a bad idea..." Delphi murmered, rubbing at her head.

She didn't mind the heat. Her body was made for warm climates, even having evolved in a place that didn't get very warm. The young woman glanced about and quickly spotted a bench. With a little pat to both her cheeks for a push of motivation, the young woman strode forward in a wobbly fashion and planted herself down on it. She pulled her 'legs' up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them in a manner that made them almost look like they had knees... almost. They were pretty clearly tails upon closer inspection.

"I suppose you were the only one who saw," she noted with a slight sigh of relief. "I'm not sure I could handle the thought of more people seeing how clumsy I was... Oh, sorry, I've been so rude. I didn't give you my name. The Director said I need to remember that because it's very important. My name is Delphi."

Director Rhonvogg reminded her of that regularly. After all, networking was very important in their line of work. Science was a profession about connections, or something along those lines.

It was always better to give your name.

 

[Zaytee]

"Nah, everybody else is too busy to notice such things." Zaytee chuckled lightly, following the other and sitting down cross legged, pulling her own tail onto her lap. "I can't really understand why is everybody always so rushing here, especially when nobody should work in the middle of the day..."

She looked up toward the burning star in the sky, squinting at it for a moment like she would secretly whisper swearwords at it, before continuing with a light smile on her face.

"Nice to meet you Delphi, I'm Zaytee. I have to admit, it's kinda nice to meet with a similarly unlucky creature like myself." She snorted quietly, her hands lightly squeezing around her tail from embarrassment. "I'm only off of my own homeplanet because I accidentally got up on a spaceship... But at least I learned that if I'm hunting for critters in the swamp, I should keep an eye on my environment a bit better."

A small flush of red blush appeared on the Kiir's face from her thoughts, but she quickly shook her head to get rid of them.

"And you? Any special reason to wander around the parked ships? You know, it can be a bit dangerous if you are not careful..."

Delphi Larkspur

 

[Delphi Larkspur]

Spaceport
Tags: Zaytee

"Ah, I suppose I'm a little distracted at the moment," Delphi answered, rubbing behind her ear. "I was just making my way back to my own vessel. I was sent here on a very important mission... and I guess I got distracted by other things and lost track of the time."

That was a charitable way of putting it. This person was interesting. Afternoons weren't for working? Perhaps her species was nocturnal then. Regardless, she seemed to have a good awareness of her surroundings, better than Delphi did at the very least. Her kind were not apex predators of any kind. She didn't have those reflexes, or a stable enough body to capitalize on them.

"You said you accidentally left your planet?" the young woman mused. "Do you know what planet that is? Maybe I could help you get back there. The Director told me it's really important to help other people if you can. He says 'good reciprocity is worth more than a million credits'."

Surely she could make a detour if it was to help someone out.

 

[Zaytee]

"Yeah, the crew noticed me too late, so they just put me out on their next stop... it was a trading ship of some sort, with a very busy schedule." The young Kiir answered quickly, lightly chuckling with embarassment. "My planet is Okarthel, it's in the Welun system, somewhere on the edge of the Expansion region..." She repeated the words the ship's crew told her, so she could find her way home. "Usually the trading ships come once or twice per year, and those only visit the more frequently used routes were we travel... You know, my species never stays in one place for too long, we rather like moving with our tribe. But it was quite unusual for a ship to get so deep into the forest, they like to park these big metal birds in the open fields where they won't sink that easily into the swamp..."

She shrugged her shoulders, not wanting to think more about it, and with a small hand gesture, waved off Delphi's suggestion.

"It's alright, I'm not rushing too much to return home. I'm hitchhiking through the galaxy, meeting new people, trying new foods... what else could I ask for?"

After her conversation with another Kiir who similarly wandered around starsystems and planets, Zaytee started thinking about fate, and all that brought her here. Maybe leaving Okarthel was not just a simple unlucky event? Maybe she had a purpose out here, or the universe was guiding her to experience the world outside of shady canopies and small fires they ignited at nights to sit around?

Maybe it was nothing... maybe it was everything. She couldn't decide.

"But... if you consider leaving this planet, maybe I can go with you until your next stop?" She asked, her tail twitching slightly in her hands. "I'm not very handy with technology, but I'm trying to learn everything that I can, so I wouldn't be dead weight."

Delphi Larkspur