Uh... what?

[Hylocereus]

Hylo stood awkwardly outside the home of [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] with his customary offerings of flowers. Truth be told he was a bit irritated, Mara never came to him for anything and yet it seemed every time they met, outside of their occasional dates, it was Hylo with hat and hand arriving at her home or otherwise calling her on the com.

Wrinkling his nose he considered his next words. He'd taken on a project for Chase Fashion. Why he took on the project he didn't know. He was just trying to be helpful, and Mara did offer to model spacesuits for him so he thought... hey here is an excuse to play dress up with his girlfriend. Girlfriend? Were they that serious already? Hylo gulped hard at the implications. Then again he's already met her father, albeit in a combat situation, and she'd met his mother. The later encounter had gone... good? Well it had gone better than he's expected and his mother hadn't murdered them both. That's a plus.

Finally working up courage Hylo clicked the doors comlink and waited for a response. He left the fabric samples, and various garments in his speeder. He didn't want to be presumptuous after all. "Mara it's me... Hylo. Do you have a minute?"

[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

Hylo wouldn't get an answer, mostly because the Merrill he was looking for - and a bonus Merrill, to boot - were already on their way out the door. "I'm sorry, Mara, I understand what you're saying. I just do not agree." Fable insisted, apologetic. "Makashi Lunatics VI was the better movie, but there is no universe where Yahwol Jakor looks better shirtless than Jihoon Ribni."

It was a tradition as old as their friendship; occasional visits typically involving arguments about action movie less, greasy food, and girltalk. One of the more 'normal' relationships in Fable's life was with her 'cousin' Mara, and Fable fiercely cultivated and defended that relationship. It was simple, healthy even. Though she did quietly fear that Mara would soon look less like her younger cousin and more like her equal - or, given her lifestyle and genetics, perhaps even older. That'd make these visits potentially different than what they'd been, and change was scary. Never mind that Mara was over twice her actual age, Fable was keenly aware that Mara was already smarter than she was and rapidly closing the gulf in their applicable combat experience. When that happened, would Mara have much use for her forever-down-on-her-luck cousin at all?

"I think that if you were to say that Danner Frek was-" Fable continued, leading the way out the front door of Mara's Coruscanti apartment. They'd decided to go get ribs at some place Mara insisted was to die for, which was fine with Fable. As the busty boxer was half-turned to speak with her cousin, she didn't notice the boy standing on the front steps with a bouquet in his hands. In her typical fashion, Fable barreled blindly into Hylo like the girl-shaped tank that she was, her sentence cut off by a startled and inarticulate 'YAWP!', tumbling down the stairs with or without the plant man beneath her.

 

[Hylocereus]

Tumble he did. Hylo fell down the stairs rolling around and trying desperately to not get hurt. He rolled up into a little ball and held his breath until finally the motion stop. And then his face grew multiple shades of green chlorophyll blushing his cheeks. He stood entwined with a strange a girl. "Uhg, why me," he said begining to untangle himself from Fable. As he stood up he looked around and found his flowers crushed and scattered on the stairs. A frown covered his face as he looked around his eyes finally falling on the girl. she was pretty enough, in a muscular and scary as hell sort of way, and Hylo's impression of her was... well what a klutz.

"Uh hey..." he said awkwardly before looking up and seeing Mara. He offered his hand to the girl on the ground and gave her a smile assuming she was a friend of Mara. "I'm Hylo," he said looking between the two girls a little nervous. Was Mara the jealous type? He did just roll around with another girl! Could that jeopardize their relationship. His heart missed a beat as he considered the implication. Then he realized something. He just rolled around with a pretty girl... and no flower bloomed on his head! That was so exciting! Boys aren't supposed to have flowers in their hand. And maybe it means he's finally grown up. "I'm here to see Mara..."

[member="Fable Merrill"] [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

Thankfully, the skinny guy she'd hit wasn't too bent out of shape, physically or emotionally. She already felt bad for not watching where she was going, she would have felt even worse if he'd been profoundly upset by her. By the time they were on their feet, Fable had nervously mumbled a half-dozen apologies. She was about to dust him off before she caught herself and took a rapid step back to give him his personal space back. Stupid girl, can't you even get walking right?

"I'm sorry." Fable offered lamely, stepping to one side to reveal Mara... who was likely laughing wildly at the situation, little troll that she was. Fable adjusted her coat, looked at the ground, and then suddenly appeared as though somebody had hit her hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Flowers were scattered all over the place, most of them separated into petals and stems. It'd been a gift! A gift for her cousin, and she'd destroyed it! Stupid, useless girl! You made everything worse just by showing up!

All in all, the fact that she was so visibly anxious clashed very much with Fable's fine leather coat, stylishly ripped jeans, tattoos and general bad-girl vibe. She dropped to her knees like a penitent and started frantically gathering up all the scattered plants, mumbling 'Fable', 'Sorry', 'Mara', 'stupid', and 'cousin' between breaths.

 

[Hylocereus]

"Uh.. what?" Hylo said looking around as the girl scrambled on the ground after the flowers. He looked between her and Mara astounding. He caught bits and pieces of her apologies mentioning of being Mara's stupid cousin and some talk about fables. With a frown Hylo leaned over and knelt down next to her. With one hand he patted her on the back a little bit. "No need to get flustered," he said extending his hand. In it there was a few seeds and with a little effort he focused and slowly they grew into flowers in front of the girls eyes. "See," he beamed the girl a smile and handed her three pretty blue flowers that had just grown. With one hand he snapped the stem of another and drifted up to her hair placing it through dark strands and resting it over her. "There you go," he said. Hylo did not know what personal space was.

"They are just flowers," He hated seeing people in distress and so put on a big smile and stared over at Fable. "So why don'y you stand up and introduce yourself proper." Standing up himself he offered the girl a hand and a comforting smile.

[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Fable Merrill"] [member="Hylocereus"]

The most important part of being an empath was knowing how and when to block everything out. Mara'd known Fable and Hylo for years, long enough to get a solid education in filtering out...well...noise. They both tended to have strong feelings about things, frequently. The sheer luminosity of their combined trademark embarrassment brought up her shields. Truth be told, she'd seen this coming. It was a major reason her cousin hadn't met her boyfriend.

She had mild to moderate Force bonds with both of them, too, which didn't help. It took a certain level of finesse to shield oneself from this much emotional resonance without presenting a detectable wall.

Then again, she'd already been putting up as many barriers as she could manage without being obvious about it. The other most important part of being an empath was learning to avoid dumping your own emotional noise on all around you. Recuperating from Lameredd and Ilum had given her a good bit of noise of her own. Depression, mostly, and frustrated anger that the 'verse didn't work as expected. Then there was the confusion brought on by a certain profound and private choice her parents had made. No point in exposing Fable and Hylo to all that on a Force-based level, hence the shielding.

All this to say, she forgot to laugh.

"Hylo, this is my cousin Fable. Fable, my boyfriend Hylo."

A little mechanical? Maybe, but it got the job done.

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]
[member="Hylocereus"]

Fable stood blankly, her mouth welded shut as Hylo put a flower in her hair and Mara revealed that this was her boyfriend. She'd been distantly aware that her cousin had one, and it made perfect sense that she did - being pretty, ambitious, smart and generally awesome. But never in a hundred years would Fable have guessed that Mara would go for the pretty-boy type.

The clone cleared her throat and adjusted her weathered leather jacket, centering herself forcibly. She still had a flower in her hair? She did. Fable decided to not touch it, for fear of hurting feelings. "It's nice to meet you, Hylo." She said, her voice polite, bordering on formal. Again, in sharp contrast with her tough-girl appearance, Fable's voice was small and almost timid. "Thank you for the flowers."

Shifting in her heavy boots, Fable glanced between her cousin - Who was oddly stiff and hadn't been her usual ball-busting self all day - and Hylo, getting the distinct feeling that there was something odd or amiss just below the surface where she couldn't see it. It wasn't an unusual feeling for her, but it was a frustrating one. Times like these made her painfully aware of her intellectual limitations. "Mara and I were gonna go get lunch." Fable explained, compelled to fill the silence. "Would you... like to come?" The question was as much directed at Hylo as it was at Mara. Fable wasn't sure if Mara wanted him along in general, or if she'd overstepped her bounds in extending an invite. Social situations could be so complicated.