Tailing a Tail Entails Hard Work (and Food)

Posted on Sat Dec 1st, 2012 @ 1:25pm by Berry & Kip Hoddai

2,288 words; about a 11 minute read

Chapter: Chapter II: Era's Dawn
Location: Red Raptor
Timeline: Day 3

Berry circled the corridors of the ship, like some kind of carrion bird or a shark around its bleeding prey. She frowned. No, that was too scary! How about...like sea hawk waiting to skim the water for a fish. She grinned, brows lowered in determination. Yeah!

She was on a mission right now...a mission to find out the truth. The truth about what? Why, Kipman's tail, of course! She always meant to keep an eye out for it during meals but she always got distracted. She didn't beat herself up too much for it, though, because food was important. She nodded with a serious frown. Yeah!

With that resolved, she settled into a chair at the table, making sure she could see the freshers. What she could do was use water magic to hear if he was in one of them buuuut that was a little weird so she didn't. However, the part-Aquar could hear without using water magic that something yummy was bubbling ever so softly at the nearby kitchen...she'd be able to hear if Horns Guy came to the freshers from a few feet away, right?? She grinned and scampered to the several pots, peering in at the delectables.

In due time a sweaty Devaronean emerged from the engine room and headed to the freshers, his supposed "tail" nowhere to be seen. He was barefoot and wore only a simple rough tunic and loose pants with a braided sash made of some sort of organic fibers of various earth-tones. Visible through the tunic, which was open low on his heavily-scarred abdomen, was a stark white tattoo of flowing curving lines that looked like some sort of flame design. Threaded through it in tiny traces were black lines.

The pot lid dropped with a -clang- as soon as Berry sensed a certain crimson presence. "Mister Kipster!!" She glanced at the area behind him before a small pout started to form on her face. Nothing was there. "Hey, I have a question for you."

"Can it wait until I no longer smell bad?" he asked her with a wan smile.

Her cheek puffed as a pout started to form...but then it withdrew as she nodded at him. "Yeah. I'm gonna eat this stuff," she declared. She turned back to the pot and started rummaging for a bowl.

He watched her for a moment and then strode over with a sigh and reached for the dropped lid, paying no attention as it jumped into his hand from a few inches away. He reached over her head and opened another cabinet and pulled down a bowl, put the lid in the cleanser to be washed off and shouldered her out of the way.

With efficient deft movements he put a bowl with all the components together in a generous portion and turned and handed it to her before turning back to the cleanser and after washing the lip, put it back on the pot.

Berry's immediate suspicion of him eating all her food was quickly replaced with awe at his expert foodiness. "Thanks!!" She took the bowl and grinned at him. "You know, you don't actually smell that bad. And I'm not just saying that 'cause you got me food or anything." She tilted the bowl and slurped a little at the edge, big eyes still on him. If anything, she would be the first to blurt out about the smell if there was one.

"Thank you Ber'," he replied, shortening her name slightly and giving her a little bow. Then his stomach let out a soft plaintive howl of protest at the smells around him and he looked upward, muttering something about 'the thousand house-gods' and went over and made himself a large cup, then dumped that into a larger bowl and then finally he made himself a massive bowl of spicy noodles, sour sauce and firm protein chunks and a large mug of steaming hot tea he had on one of the warmer plates. He came and sat across from her at one of the tables and using a pair of eating sticks because to slurp and suck noodles down at an impressive speed, pausing now and again to belch softly.

The part-Aquar giggled. "You're fast!" Then her eyes narrowed at him. But she was faster. She tilted the bowl back even more and opened her mouth, not even bothering to chew as she swallowed it all!! Well, not all of it. It got too spicy so she took some breaks, panting slightly. She beamed at him. "I loooove noodles because you can do this." She slurped a single strand and it wriggled, slapping her nose before disappearing in her mouth. "Where'd you learn to make this stuff??"

"My mom," he replied with a grin, "this isn't anything like what she makes but I can't get the right ingredients in this thing," he gestured with his sticks at the storage area where the foodstuffs were kept. "There's a Dev cafe on Coruscant I'll take you to if you want where we can get authentic cinder noodles and imported qrj' in it. Its pricey but its really worth it every now and again," he grinned, a little far-off look in his eyes.

Berry bit her lip, eyebrows knitting slightly. "Uuuuhh..." Not surprisingly, she wasn't worried about the money but about something else. Would she have time to eat before she left? Probably. But then Horns Guy would know of her last location...but the food sounded so good! Her lips pouted slightly in thought. "Ummm...okay, but..." She leaned forward and whispered, "We can't take Thrane. Or Boomy. Or Mr. Rezer." She frowned a little. But that wouldn't be very fun. She didn't like that, and so she sighed. "Yeah..."

She glanced off before looking back at him, smiling faintly. "I don't know my mom, so it's nice that you get food from her." Her eyes lit up. "So what other things can you make? Can you make things with water animals?"

"I like aquatic foods," he nodded, "they're fast to prepare. And," he paused and stared at her for a second, "Why are you planning to run off? I mean, I get Thane and Sev, especially the way the cyborg smells," he wrinkled up his face.

Berry pursed her lips to the side, not meeting his awesome eyes as hers shifted all over the place. "Uhhh, who told you I was going to leave?" Was it that "firewalker" thing that Mr. Rezer had brought up? She hid her face with the bowl as she "ate."

"Your feet said they want to run," Kip replied, "your heart sounds like its on a journey, your words are full of secrets," he shrugged. "When I look at you it feels like I'm not going to be seeing you very much longer."

Berry placed the bowl on the table as she grinned back at him. "And when I look at YOU I wish I had horns!" She smiled at him. "Yeah, I had a bad dream about the thing the guy we're chasing has—well, dreams don't always come true, but..." She glanced at him. "But you guys on this ship are really powerful, so things could get done. I mean LOOK at this food!" She gazed down at her empty bowl, brows knitting. "Aw, never mind..."

"Did you want more?" Kip asked, head cocked.

She smiled and shook her head. "Nah...I might throw up." She chuckled as if that was funny. Then she paused to look at him with wide eyes. "But why are you here? You're not here to be my cook, which is too bad." Najis made good stuff, but so did this guy. She leaned toward him and whispered, "Did you have a dream, too? You know some water magic, so maybe...?"

"Fire," he corrected. "I focus on flames, fire, the formless grace of flame."

Berry chuckled. "Yeah, fire makes really good food." She grinned. "Maybe you're like my cook back home...he kicked people so fast, sometimes his legs caught on fire!" She laughed, simplifying a lot of science but that was how she usually did things. She patted the table, cheek puffing. "So why are you here?? Mr. Rezer and Thrane are way too serious sometimes and barely any fun, and Boomy is quiet a lot, so...?"

"I want what Axion has and I want him dead," Kip shrugged as he said it completely matter-of-fact.

Berry nodded. "Yeah, lots of people want both." Her eyebrows shot up in realization. "But Thrane wants what Axion has, too—are you guys gonna have to fight over it??" She grimaced. "Well, hopefully that happens after he's dead or else you'd both end up dead 'cause he's really bad..." Her brows knit slightly. All the more reason not to hang around then.

"I expect Thane will have more to be concerned about by then than myself," Kip replied with a shrug.

Berry nodded again, musing absently as she gazed off into the distance. "Yeah, but what will he go after—absolute power or absolute revenge? Hmmm..." She gnawed on a noodle stick for a few moments, silence actually taking over, before she glanced over at Horns Guy. "Hey, I have a question to ask you before I forget."

He cocked his head at her, listening.

The part-Aquar waved her stick at him as she frowned in thought. "Do you have a tail? How long does it take to grow your horns? What's your favorite food? Wait, did I ask you that already?" Berry paused for a second, brows furrowing. Then a sheepish smile formed on her face. "Uhhhh, that wasn't one question...but still!" She frowned sternly at him, very expectant.

"We begin to grow our horns right after birth," he answered one of the questions, the one he wanted to and grinned at her.

Berry's eyes narrowed in a glare but the grin she shot back to him made it playful. This guy was being silly! "Yeaaaah, but what about your taaaaiill??" she whined, brows knitting as she leaned forward to peer at his pants. "C'mon, you gotta have one, right?? I mean, that would be super cool and you already have horns, cool eyes, good food—one more thing is okay, riiiight?" She wheedled as if her wishing something was true would make it so, making her sound very childish...but that kind of dumb determination should not be so surprising.

"If I had one wouldn't you have seen it already?" he asked, clearly bemused at her persistence. "Besides, Deva don't have tails, everybody knows that."

Berry's jaw dropped as she stared at him. Whaaat? When did this happen?? "Are you serious?!" she exclaimed. "Nuh uh!" came a protest as she pouted darkly. That couldn't be! "But...but...you have to have a tail..." Her brows knit, and she stared plaintively at his pants/shirt.

"'Saw that inna vision dija?" he chuckled and shook his head. "Not everything ya see is, or will be, or will be as you saw it, since you knew and changed what you did leading to it."

Berry just pouted at him. "I didn't dream it. I just....I just know it's true." She ducked her head under the table and looked around frantically. Where could it be?? She popped her head up to glare at him. "You...you have to have one. It doesn't feel right that you don't." She checked under her chair, mumbling to herself, "M'be y'took it off..." Or he was hiding it. Her eyes flashed toward his pants again, a mischievous look starting to creep on her face. She suddenly realized she wasn't under the table anymore to hide the expression and quickly replaced the look with her usual clueless one, her eyes shifting to the ceiling and around them.

"I strongly recommend you don't try to ambush me young lady," Kip waggled his right clawed index finger at her from across the table, "and why are you so fascinated if I have a birth defect or not? Did it occur to you that if I did, I might be hiding it because I was ashamed of it? Or that, if I had a tail and I was hiding it, that it might be a vulnerability? Just because you think something is a certain way or you want something, it doesn't mean you always get to have your way or make it true."

Berry's eyes twinkled at him as her playful smile widened. "Yeah, but I can always try to make it so." She tilted her head and chuckled. "Hey, I think it's super cool to have a tail, and I wish I had one!" Her eyes widened at the awesome thought, and she smiled enviously at Kipster. "You should think it's cool too so you can show it off. After all, it's what you think that counts, who cares what everyone else thinks." She frowned stubbornly. "And it's cool." It didn't occur to her Kip would stand by what he thought, too, but she probably would encourage any kind of self-confidence.

"Yes but Devaroneans don't have tails Berry," he replied pointedly. "You've never seen one with a tail have you?" he asked.

The part-Aquar shook her head, grinning. "Nope! I've never even seen ONE Devanorean! Although there was this one guy at the prison I was stuck in, he wore horns and took them out to throw at me when I escaped..." She chuckled and then smiled anew at Kip. "You're special, and I think that's awesome, too." She nodded, frowning stubbornly in case he tried to tell her otherwise.

"On that I agree with you," he grinned widely. "I AM special."

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