Open Ajan Kloss To Be Kind

[Byron Alduun]

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The Pantoran’s enthusiasm for an otherwise menial task had spruced up his mood.

The growing crowd had been distracting, especially when he had elected himself to be the leader for this rotor. All at once, he had this heavy burden of responsibility weighing down his shoulders, eyes constantly shifting from padawan to knight – trying to keep up with all of the going-ons.

Only the voice of a certain blue-skinned Jedi Knight could snap him out of it. “Can’t say I’ve ever made anything Pantoran,” he said, itching his cheek, memories of home flooding his mind, searching for similarity. “Didn’t see a lot of them back on Lothal.” He shrugged helplessly at the fact. “Well, here you are anyway. I’ll grab the ingre—”

All of a sudden, Vayla had set herself off. It was fascinating. She became a blur of blue, hands pulling out ingredients of all different sizes. Her voice listing each one. There was something so endearing about it. She was excited at even the thought of her home. For that, he could relate.

“Well, run me through the steps, Vayla,” he said, his palms rubbing against each other. He readjusted his apron. “Let’s get this almost-Pandoran seaweed soup going.”

@Die Shize​

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[Vayla Mirana]

Music OOC [Recurring]

Spoiler

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“Well, run me through the steps, Vayla,” he said, his palms rubbing against each other. He readjusted his apron. “Let’s get this almost-Pandoran seaweed soup going.”
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Vayla hesitated her movements just long enough to remember that she wasn’t as alone as her trance had deceived her, with none other than Byron breaking her concentration, and being warmly received for it. He had decided to actually join her little project and for that she faced him with a smile that spread with gusto.

“I’d be delighted! It is my honor to inaugurate you in your first almost-Pantoran seaweed soup, Byron," she teased with a wink. “We’ll make a Pantoran chef out of you yet! But first...” Forefinger jabbed up. “Tea!”

With that, Vayla had but to shimmy aside, press a button and drum her fingers a few beats before the kettle steamed with zest. Two cups set aside, she dropped a teabag in one. “Cucumber mint. Tends to put me in a cooking mood, you know?” Whether he knew or not, she poured herself a cup, gestured to pour him the same (or let him decide his own, if tea was even his thing) and let her cup settle.

“Now,” she said for her own turn of palm-rubbing energy. “If you would, please, help me rinse and soak the seaweed. We’ll need to wash it and let it soak in water, then rinse again. Here, this should be enough for a sizeable batch.” She opened a large bag and pulled out clumps for the both of them to handle, with more bags to go for multiple servings in mind. “We’ll start cutting the other ingredients next. Marinating the beef, sautéing the clams, adding the tasty lot, and . . . “ She shrugged. “Let’s stick with the seaweed first…” One hand and two, two hands and four, harmony hit high notes as Vayla began rinsing and soaking one pile after the other.

“So, Byron," she started after taking a sip of her tea. "If not almost-Pantoran seaweed soup, or Tapato stew, what else do you cook?” Vayla could hardly contain the vigor in her voice. As calming as cooking could be, it could also be exciting, and, amid the thrum of activity from fellow Jedi in the kitchen, she was eager to both cook and converse with her would be partner.

 

[Byron Alduun]

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A kind palm raised to kindly refuse the tea.

“Not my kind of thing, believe it or not,” followed the hand from an even kinder mouth. Truth be told, he had went against all of the typical Jedi tropes. He wasn’t calm (though he tried) and he didn’t rely on the herbal remedies that others at the Order did (though he tried). There was something magnificently real over overcoming one’s problems in your own way. And that’s what he did. He held his anger by the throat and he screamed.

He took the seaweed in his hands, each finger gently massaging its edges, perhaps a little more than he had originally bargained for. Tunnel vision locked on the Pantoran’s hands, he began mimicking her movements. “How long have you been at Ajan Kloss for?” he asks over the hustle and bustle of the crowd in the background. He felt it was less intrusive than asking of how long her commitment to the Order was, even though the question achieved the same.

“Me?” he asks, pointing at himself with a handful of seaweed. “Oh you know, a lot. Lothal’s got a lot of people on it. The Rodians loved Nilluk Strips, the Ithorians loved Corobb Salad.” The benefit of a multicultural planet, he supposed. The ability to learn from those you would not ordinarily interact with.

Food, piecing them together like a puzzle.

@Die Shize​

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[Vayla Mirana]

Music OOC [Recurring]

Spoiler

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“Me?” he asks, pointing at himself with a handful of seaweed.

Vayla chuckled. Who else!? As Byron recited the I-cook-a-little-bit-of-everything speech, her mind lingered on Lothal. The last dish she remembered eating on that planet was some kind of fruit pie. She couldn’t remember the fruit but she could definitely recall the sweet, succulent taste that lingered on her tongue for hours afterward. Mmm Nilluk Strips. Have I had that before?

“Sounds like you know your stuff! Salad is one of my staples. Fun to make, fun to eat!” Rinsing the seaweed, she could have just as easily been making a salad. A soggy, soggy salad, but a salad. Sometimes seaweed was just as well dried to a crisp, salted or sweetened or salted and sweetened. Though, no, they were making miyok chu today. Pantoran seaweed soup was one dish that she hadn't had in a while, homegrown or otherwise. However, the salad could be a future success, provided that they wholly succeeded in this one.

“You were born on Lothal?” As Vayla saw to her seaweed, she didn’t make eye contact as she asked the question. It was tethered to a number more in meaning, from 'what was life like there for you?' to 'when did you leave the planet and set for the stars?' Hers was much more curiosity than custom. Some individuals happily made conversation with each other more so for the sake of making conversation; words flying between their mouths without really digesting the speech. Yet, here was one individual who would savor Byron’s words and let them settle, like seasoning in soup. Soon enough! First, a bit more on the weeds and then we move onto the beef!

 

[Byron Alduun]

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Again, her enthusiasm was infectious.

“I only know as much as my mother,” he says, eyes lit up with the sparks of his homeworld. “So if you think I’m impressive, you should see her.” Anyone that had known Byron long enough would know that his roots were as important to him as his future. His philosophy revolves around the idea that knowing the steps one had taken before would help them in steps for the future. Just as it did now, lacing itself into the conversation. Enveloping it with reminiscence.

He replies, “Born and raised. It’s a good place to grow up on.” Byron’s eyes were too busy to politely engage in contact with the Pantoran’s, instead focused on the vegetation in his hands. Occasionally, he would look over to the blue ones moving in a blur to his right before immediately tunneling in back on his own.

“You miss it?” he asks, solemnly. It wasn’t meant to inject the conversation with sadness. Instead, it was to find happiness in understanding that another had that same home-sickly feeling in their stomach sometimes. It was easier to suffer when you had a comrade suffering the same thing. Almost as if you were splitting the pain up and sharing.

@Die Shize​

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[Vayla Mirana]

Music OOC [Recurring]

Spoiler

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“You miss it?”

Vayla’s hands slowed some as she raised her head, seeing first the ceramic tiles on the wall above her sink, then a window as her eyes shifted. On the other side of the glass was a world of dense vegetation, sprawling with spiring trees and nestled bushes, seas of rich green grass and all of the animals and insects that filled the forests of the moon. Her moon, however, was different. On Pantora, fields of red grass fringed the silvery marshes all about the flatlands, dotted with hills and mountains and one particular pink granite monolith that Vayla was taken to as a girl. And somewhere there is the Mirana homestead. Father is tending the fields and Mother is in the kitchen just like I am.

“Yes,” she replied, the very utterance of the word bringing her back to her new home and her eyes to her hands. “I definitely do.” Sentimentality was in her tone but not sadness. “My heart will always belong with Pantora, but the heart goes where the body goes, and here I am.” Careful not to let her mind wander too far away from reality, Vayla grinned while washing another clump of seaweed.

“There’s a custom on my world when preparing miyok chu, you know. Cultivating the wetlands, there’s a bit of a ritual with cooking algae. We eat the plants borne from water, the water enters our bodies, and we become one form—in a manner of speaking, of course. So, where washing the seaweed is a vital step in the process, we quite literally find it fitting to face the water that we too are borne from.”

With that, she placed the back of her fingers beneath her chin and on her forehead, and gently slapped her wet hands against her cheeks, then turned to Byron to do the same thing to him with an unrestrained chuckle. “The water is cool, no? And now we can bond with it. A welcome feeling on a humid day especially. Sometimes, as a girl, my siblings and I would wash our weeds right from the banks and eat them then and there. Of course, I fell in on more than one occasion, so consider the water on your cheeks to be a mercy!”

Out of nowhere, Vayla burst out in laughter, the memory of a long time ago plunging itself to the forefront of her brain.


@Turtleneck

 

[Byron Alduun]

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Oh how enticing it was to let your mind drift.

If he hadn’t been almost mechanically sorting through the seaweed, he would have been lost. The harsh winds of Lothal, the sand like bullets spraying against your skin. “That makes sense. Sometimes I forget that Ajan Kloss is just as much of a home as Lothal was,” he replied. Having a split life was almost like sharing the best of both worlds. Just as much as you shared the tragedies.

“That is definitely something,” he said, laughter weaving its way through his words. “I can’t say I can relate to that feeling, but it’s good to know!”

When her eyes lingered upon him to do the same, he hesitated. Not because he didn’t want to do it, rather that he had been so engrossed in the storytelling and the washing that he hadn’t paid attention. Though, thankfully, before he could even try she was already gushing over something else.

And then laughter. Confusing for sure.

“Wait, was that a joke? I didn’t fall for it, right?” he asked, almost a little too sincerely.

@Die Shize​

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[Vayla Mirana]

Music OOC [Recurring]

Spoiler

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In a moment, Vayla stifled her laughing fit toward an unceremonious end, suddenly aware of a few fellow cooks looking her way while she stole glances at her surroundings for some much needed support. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure what had brought about her hysterical distress save for simply the memory that had leapt to the forefront of her mind and latched itself there like a Loth-cat. Oh, Rena! When you fell in after I fell in! The seaweed rope! The hair! OH GOODNESS. A few giggles later that served as the finale and she was right as rain.

“Sorry,” she replied with little apology. “No, no—no joke! Not you, anyway. Just remembering a joke that was on me and my sister, ha.” She cleared her throat and realigned the center of her focus back to the task at hand. “Okay! That should about do it for the seaweed.” She moved to set aside her seaweed clumps and help him with his own if need be. “Next, we’re gonna cut some meat!”

With that, Vayla yanked a knife from the knife block and flipped its handle back into her grip with a smile. She wasn’t seeking to impress anyone (impressing herself was good enough in her book). “A tad dangerous of a trick, I guess. It’s one my uncle taught me.” Unwrapping a broad beef steak, she nudged another toward Byron so that he could share the effort while she began cutting away.

“This arguably safer trick is to cut the beef into bite size pieces. We want it to marinate with the mussel broth, soy sauce and garlic. Typical for any stew, mind you, but doubly important for this one!” This cooking stage would be quicker than the last. It would be simple labor to chop up the meat and then marinate with the stated mixture.

“So, million credit question, Byron,” Vayla started with a glance, most of her gaze going to her blade. “One that I feel is my O so honorary duty to ask as one Jedi to the other… What made you decide to become a Jedi?”



@Turtleneck