Ask Onderon Brunch

[Malou D'Amaris]

"They're good, aren't they?" A proud smile widened the girl's dark lips at the expression that followed Ruzaan after he bit into the puff pastry. A moment later, when he couldn't help but exclaim his surprise, she giggled. 'I wonder what his expression would be if he tasted one from back home?' Serennian chefs, at least the ones she had at her disposal, were unmatched. Money couldn't buy everything, but it could certainly pay for talent!

"No problem," she assured. His reaction alone was worth it. Thankfully he liked them because she couldn't eat all on the plate. Why was five the smallest size they offered? "But yes, go ahead." Malou rest her elbows on the table and cupped where her ears would be on either side of her head. Though her ears were currently beneath the blindfold she wore, it would still be obvious to Ruzaan that she was saying she was "all ears!"

tag: @SlagathorTheUnknown

 

[Ruzaan Kai]

Ruzaan's heart skipped a beat, unbidden, as Malou indicated her complete attention. Looking back, he would realize that it was her willingness to connect and be present with him that resonated strongly within him. The Togruta was quite flustered for a few moments as his brain turned off and then back on again, and only after a couple seconds was he finally able to find his voice.

"Uhm... ok... uh..." Ruzaan cleared his throat and reached for his glass of water- suddenly his face was feeling quite warm. Finally, he was able to construct a complete sentence. "First; I won a speeder race on the lower levels of Coruscant." This was true. "Second, I can touch my nose with my tongue." This was also true, but as he brought it up he realized how embarrassed he would be to demonstrate in front of Malou. "Third, I have three stomachs." This was a lie- he had two- although he'd been born with three, which was not unheard of for his species, one had been removed when he was a child when it malfunctioned and threatened his life.

Unable to stop a smile from breaking out over his face at the admittedly odd admissions, Ruzaan took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart as he waited for Malou to guess which was his lie.

@lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

Is he nervous? Malou lowered one hand to rest on the table and used the other to support her head by resting her chin in her hand. It didn't take him long to gather his composure at least, and soon enough he was listing off his two facts and one lie.

The first one was that he had won a speeder race in the lower levels of Coruscant. Well, he is a Jedi. Perhaps he was down there for charity work or something? If he would go all the way out to Kesh for a class project, she figured it made sense for him to go all the way to Coruscant too. Malou decided the first one seemed true.

The next was that he could touch his tongue to his nose. Malou could do that and knew a few of her cousins could too. Manon was especially good at it and could even reach the tip of her nose. That seems too simple to lie about. Probably true.

It was the last of his statements that she wasn't sure about. I think Ashla alluded to having more than one stomach once? Recalling that all of a sudden all three of his statements seemed fair and reasonable. Did she say she had two or three stomaches though? Malou genuinely could not remember.

"Hmm..." Malou voiced her indecisive with a quiet hum. Ruzaan had a stupid big smile that had broken out over his face, which she thought was cute. He's that confident, huh? A few more moments would pass before the Miralukan sat straight up and declared, "I think three is the lie. Togrutas only have two stomachs." She still couldn't remember how many Ashla had said they had, but she figured Ruzaan was too small to have three stomachs. Maybe if he were a Wookie or an Orcolan she would believe it. Also, it was two truths and a lie, so she had a feeling it was popular to pick the third option to be the lie.

Okay, her turn. After a minute of quiet deliberation, Malou presented her three statements:

"I've never held a lightsaber." Lie. Of course, she'd held a lightsaber! She figured he would assume that to be true, though.

"I have a brother." Truth. He was her half-brother technically, though he didn't feel like much of a brother at all.

"My favorite color is burgundy." Truth. She thought it looked lovely on her.

tag: @SlagathorTheUnknown

 

[Ruzaan Kai]

Ruzaan was only a little disappointed when Malou correctly guessed his lie; mostly, he was pleased that she didn't think the game was stupid or boring. "Correct!" he replied, unable to keep from smiling. "Well done! And my species is a bit odd in that we have multiple stomachs; I'm not sure there's a 'normal' amount to be quite honest with you. I actually did have three stomachs once, but one had to be removed so I'm down to two." Belatedly, he realized that how many stomachs one had was not necessarily table talk, so he seized on the opportunity to shut up and let Malou do the talking as she relayed her submissions.

Malou was not a Jedi or a Sith, so that ruled out the lightsaber piece being the lie. And while Ruzaan was not very interested in fashion, even he had to admit that burgundy would be a good color on Malou... perhaps that was also true. That left her second line.

Usually, when someone offered "I have a brother/sister/monkey lizard" line, they were fishing for a cheap win; oftentimes, they had two (or more) of the relatives in question, and Ruzaan was about to blurt out his response when a thought struck him. Malou studied ancient Sith history, and her work included the study of relics. With that in mind, it was entirely conceivable that she had, in fact, held a lightsaber before.

A few more seconds passed as he weighed which answer to go with, during which he peeked quickly at Malou's face which, predictably, betrayed nothing. "Um... I think that you have held a lightsaber before" he finally decided, realizing that she'd used the word held and not operated. "Your job probably brings you into contact with them from time to time."

@lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

Damn, he got it right. Malou's expression remained passive when he decided she had held a lightsaber before. Technically he hadn't stated which "truth" was actually a lie. "Which one do you think is the lie?" she asked, allowing her head to fall slightly to the side. She wouldn't confirm if that one was the truth or not in case he second-guessed himself.

tag: @SlagathorTheUnknown

 

[Ruzaan Kai]

Ruzaan was about to reply "Number one- the lightsaber one" when his montrals picked up on the sound of a commotion nearby. Although he was immediately alert for danger, internally, the Togruta sighed; couldn't he have one nice afternoon with Malou without any kind of excitement? Was that too much to ask? Not to mention his track record after meeting with her; last time, he'd been thrust into an invasion on Kabal after leaving Kesh- with his luck, the Sith would probably invade Yavin IV as soon as he got back.

"What's going on?" he asked Malou, standing up and trying to get a visual on the cause of the unrest.

@lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

At the sound of the sudden commotion, Malou's immediately searched for the source of the sound. She would see it just before Ruzaan, but a train of floats and presumably colorful dancers were beginning to flood the city's main street. It was only an alleyway over, but her Togruta friend could soon be able to see it through the cracks in the buildings.

"It's a parade," informed Malou with a level of amusement in her voice. She began to rise, and as she did, reached into her pocket and procured a number of credits more than enough to pay for both of their meals. Entertaining as it had been, the Miralukan had tired of sitting around and simply chatting. If there was a parade about to begin, why not hurry on over and see the sight for themselves?

"C'mon, let's go check it out!" Malou would grab Ruzaan by the wrist and hopefully pull him along with her in the direction of the commotion. They only had to run their way through an alley before the explosion of music would hit them, and a rainbow of colors would be known to Ruzaan. The parade was only arriving at this location, and each float was themed in a unique way. The first one was covered in blues of all hues and decorated with waves, sea creatures, and seashells. A couple of adults dressed up as mermaids tossed cool-colored candies into the crowd. Children scurried to pluck them off the ground with deft fingers, and one all-but shoved between Ruzaan and Malou to snatch a particularly big one from in between them

"Have you ever been to a parade before?"

tag: @SlagathorTheUnknown

 

[Ruzaan Kai]

"A parade" Ruzaan repeated to himself, curiously. He was still pondering just what a parade was when he felt Malou's grip close around his wrist; he knew what that meant, and so was more or less ready as Malou pulled him along with her towards the sounds of music and the chatter of humanoids.

"A parade!" Ruzaan said again, as they exited the alley and burst onto the scene. Everywhere he looked was a spectacle of sights, smells, and sounds. Some candies, thrown from a nearby float, thudded at his feet, and as a small child scrambled between him and Malou, Ruzaan had to remind himself that it would be very unlike a Jedi to shove the kid aside and take the candy for himself. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long for more candy to be tossed, and with a joyous smile he unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth.

"This is great!" he smiled around a mouth full of caramel.

@lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

Malou laughed when he began to stuff his mouth full of caramel. It was a bit gross, but also endearing to a degree, so he got a pass. She refrained from eating any of the thrown candy though. There were a lot of ways in which she would consider herself an adventurous eater, but not in the ground candy sort of way.

"Wow, look at that one!" Malou pointed further down the street where the float she saw was just getting up to where Ruzaan would be able to see it. A giant metal rose sat upon a floral-decorated hover platform. On the larger petal, women dressed up in festive, flower-covered get-ups sat with crossed legs and tossed out red candies into the crowd. Three men dressed as bugs pulled the float along, and children dressed as tiny roses danced around the perimeter. As they got closer, Malou and Ruzaan would both be able to read the words that ran along the side of the float. Mariana's Floristry. The Mirlukan, in addition to the name, noticed very quickly that the women perching upon the petals were very attractive.

"I wonder what this parade is for?" she wondered aloud, flinching to the left to allow a thrown candy to fall past where her head had been. She shifted back, then looked at Ruzaan. "Do you know of any holidays on Onderon?"

tag: @SlagathorTheUnknown

 

[Ruzaan Kai]

The whole world was a vibrant mix of music, color, children, candy, and fun- and Ruzaan had never experienced anything quite like it. From the pounding of a deep bass instrument that resonated inside his ribs, to the dazzling array of colorful costumes and floats, the Togruta soaked it all in. He followed Malou's outstretched finger to gawk at the floristry float, taking in the creative attire and communal feel to the whole experience.

"I don't know what this could be celebrating, but it's great!" he shouted over the music in response to Malou's question- the only holidays he was aware were ones celebrated on Shili, and he was confident that none of them involved a parade. "We don't have celebrations like this on Shili, at least not where I'm from. How about you?" She hadn't shared many details with him about her life growing up.

@lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

"I'm never been to a celebration like this," Malou answered with a shrug. The closest she knew of were balls and galas hosted on Serenno, with or without Sith. Solemnly, she figured she would have loved to see one of these parades on Serenno as a kid. She knew they happened on her homeworld, but she'd never been to one.

While they continue to watch the spectacle and listen to the music, Malou felt a familiar vibration pattern in her pocket. Great. Three quick buzzes meant the message was important, which meant it was probably a mission assignment. Ruzaan seemed to be having quite a lot of fun, but she would need to find an excuse to leave sooner or later.

"How much longer you got?" Malou asked of her friend. Maybe if he also needed to leave soon, she could use that as an opportunity to wrap things up.

tag: @SlagathorTheUnknown

 

[Ruzaan Kai]

Ruzaan would've been content to spend the whole day lost in the atmosphere of the parade, but the prompt from Malou shook him to his senses. A slightly panicked look crossed the Togruta's face. "What time is it?" Upon hearing the response, his eyes widened further- he had a transport to catch!

Hastily, Ruzaan prepared to leave, running down a mental list to make sure he still had all the Important Things that he'd come here with- lightsaber, datapad, credit pouch- before turning to face Malou. "I need to go or I'll miss the transport back! Uh, thanks for meeting up!" His body language betrayed both his desire to give Malou a friendly hug, as well as the wariness that she might not be comfortable with that. "Thanks... for all of this! See you again soon?" he asked. Hopefully much sooner than last time.

/ThrExit

@lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

"Ha, okay," Malou laughed as panic spread across his face. "Safe travels!" She missed the cue to go in for a hug, and instead lifted her hand and gave him a friendly wave goodbye.

Once alone, Malou pulled out her datapad and clicked on the message. Something about an intelligence mission on Denon. With a sigh, she put it back in her pocket and made her way back to where she'd left her ship.

// exit thread

tag: @SlagathorTheUnknown