Where the Sand Meets the Water

[Damsy Callat]

Location: Bootlegger's Market, Raider's Cove, Rishi Theme: With You​

Form: Humanoid Equipment: Outfit / wrist comm / bionic leg exoskeletons / vibrodagger​

Tag: [member="A'Runda"]​

Damsy stood at a railing overlooking the flooded coast line meters below, but didn't lean on it, as she had been cautioned by a storekeeper. Admittedly, she wasn't too concerned about the structural integrity of the wooden boards held up by metal pylons, as the fall wouldn't kill her and she wouldn't drown, but, for the sake of the locals, she would help maintain it.

Not much time had passed since Damsy had met A'Runda on Thaere Privo, but it felt like a lifetime separated then and now. Not only had Damsy been away from her love interest, but there had been many more developments she had had to face. One was the mission on Rodia. Another was the surprise attack on Triffis. The last of note had been her most recent interaction on Kamino. All of it was so weird; these changes to her lifestyle had yet to fully catch up with her. She still saw herself as the lonely sea monster of Kamino. But now she was an active Dauntless Commando as well as, apparently, a sister.

So, while the latter still didn't make much sense to her, Damsy had made a few changes to strengthen herself and look the part of at least the former. As always, she kept her now-waterproofed communicator display strapped to her wrist, in case Commander Luna needed her. A small vibrodagger hung at the back of her belt, as she still hadn't found an opportunity to learn her way around a blaster. And, though she had gotten around relatively quickly with an electrostaff bracing her on Triffis, she had opted for Allya's gift of bionic leg exoskeletons.

A sudden, high-pitched squeak brought the young Sithspawn out of her thoughts. A glance to her right shoulder revealled her sea-mouse, Trinj, nested in her braids. Of course, he couldn't understand, but he was attuned with his owner's emotions to a degree. He must have picked up on her attention being on someone other than him. "You wanted to come," Damsy reminded her pet before sticking her tongue out.

 

[A'Runda]

Location: Bootleggers Market, Raiders Cove​

Equipment: Outfit, Gaffi Stick​

Theme​

A'Runda had never really felt love before that fateful night, and even after the initial intensity he still yearned to be with Damsy once more. He'd heard before the saying that opposite attract, which seemed to be the case for them. He didn't understand the origins of the saying. Something involving magic rocks that like to connect to each other. Neither Damsy or him were rocks so he didn't at first understand how it related to them until recently.

This was his first time he was on such a wet planet. He'd been around large bodies of water before, but this is the first time he's been somewhere that most of the world is covered. Being on a landmass that was surrounded was kind of unnerving to him.

But non of this was gonna keep him away from his love. Walking through the beach side settlement he eventually found who he was looking for by a railing over looking the coast. There she was, as beautiful as the day he met her, he just hoped he looked alright as well. "Damsy!" he called out through his wrappings. Quickly moving up to her he went in to embrace her. However, when he did he heard a squeak from something he was sure wasn't her.

 

[Damsy Callat]

The voice was instantly recognizable; she didn't even have to squint to try to identify him. "A'Runda!" Damsy called back, easily turning and bounding over to the Tusken Raider and right into his arms. She nuzzled her head into his neck, but not too enthusiastically as to not ruin his wrappings. "I'm so glad you made it~"

Another squeak caused Damsy to hesitantly pull away. Trinj scampered out from over Damsy's shoulder and across her collarbone. He paused to look quizzically at A'Runda. Giggling, Damsy picked up Trinj and, looking back to A'Runda, said, "Don't mind Trinj. He's just needy." She paused, then grew slightly horrified. "Are you scared of mice? I can...um, put him...somewhere?" she offered, frantically searching herself for a place she might hide Trinj where he would be at least semi-comfortable.


[member="A'Runda"]

 

[A'Runda]

A'Runda shook his head some. "Nope, rodents don't scare me, so I don't mind. I was just confused is all." He replied to her, looking down at the mouse a slight smile crept onto his face behind his wraps. But through the goggles he looked back at Damsy, catching her once more in his arms. Gently since he remembered that her legs weren't the best. "Damsy my darling, it feels like we've been away from each other far too long." He said to her, like the hopeless romantic he could feel himself becoming when around her.

"If you don't mind me asking, what did you have planned that required us to meet up hear. Could it simply be that you want us to have a roman-...roma...lovely walk on the beach." A'Runda sadly did know every word in the basic dictionary by heart, and still had some trouble saying, reading, and spelling some words. So many more sounds and words from the far more simple Tusken language.

[member="Damsy Callat"]

 

[Damsy Callat]

As if he could hear the news, Trinj let out another squeak and hid himself the the braids cascading down Damsy's nape--though why was a mystery even to her; it was way too warm and humid here for the sea-mouse to possibly be cold. Maybe he was simply shy. He never had gone into Tipoca City with her, after all, and therefore had not been around other humanoids, other than Vexia recently.

In time, Damsy pulled gently away from A'Runda's second embrace. She shook her head, and then paused. "I mean, yes, we can do that," she began, thinking back to their last and first-ever conversation--specifically, the bit about Tatooine. "I just didn't want you to be miserable on Kamino," she added. "Or me on Tatooine." She tilted her head slightly. "My friend told me this planet might be a happy medium. I hope it's okay."

[member="A'Runda"]

 

[A'Runda]

Based on context clues A'Runda tried to understand the last bit if what she said. Medium meant a sort of norm, like not too much and not too little. So a happy medium must've meant some kind of good middle ground for the two of them he figured. He was still amazed such a women still cared to spend time with him. He wasn't the most literate, she has never seen what he really looks like, and he's from one of the driest worlds in the whole galaxy. He figured this must go to show that she really did want to be with him.

"I'm sure your friend's right, and I have no issue with the choice of destination. I mainly just have trouble on lush jungle like planets, they give me headaches." He added with a bit of a chuckle. He then presented her with his arm for her to take. Which he remembered from a past experience was well mannered gesture. "Shall we see more of this place Damsy, also, I'd love to learn more about you. Like your background and such."

[member="Damsy Callat"]

 

[Damsy Callat]

Panic washed over Damsy, feeling stronger than any tidal or beach wave she had ever experienced.

Strange.

The beach suddenly seemed like a very bad choice. The problem laid not in the shifting sands--no, she leg exoskeletons would help her keep her balance there--but in the waves. She shapeshifted completely by choice, though the water was still somewhat unnerving. How would [member="A'Runda"] react to her squaloid form? Probably not well, or, at least, not so at first. After all, she'd turn into a half woman with a single tail in the place of her two wobbly legs and talons for fingernails, sprawled on the sands crying in the hot-red pain of transformation.

But she had already made something of a commitment. And if they stayed far away from the swash-zone, her sudden anxiety shouldn't be able to touch her.

So she looped her arm under A'Runda's, for extra support both physically and emotionally. As she did, she grinned at him. He was, in a way, like one of the geothermal vents that kept Damsy warm in the ocean abyss of Kamino: a source not only of life-preserving heat in the deep but a light of hope in the cold, mysterious deep.

Yes, he was particularly like the latter: a beacon that, both when present and not with her, pushed her to explore the new worlds all around her.

"Lead the way, Cuddlefish."