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Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Printable Version

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Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-07-2014




Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - megs - 11-08-2014

Nova chuckled softly, thinking back on their first acquaintance. Her not so subtle forms of flirting, and his not so traditional return. She didn't vocalize anything, but that half-smile she tended to wear said nothing and everything at the same time. She was seemingly content to watch their reflections and admire the way they looked together. It wasn't until the tendril that had nestled beneath his chin unfurled, traced a line down his throat, and attempted to slip beneath the collar of his shirt, that she unclasped her hand from his and pulled the whole tangle of appendages over the opposite shoulder.

She crossed in front of him, using Onion attempting to pull her arm off as an excuse to smother her slight embarrassment. Cursing her tentacles in her head, she pleaded with them to behave. As if doing so, would wrangle her the wayward thoughts that were the actual cause of the problem.

She would have continued, rambling off on a tangent about something else Reyr had told her about Mars, but she was silenced by gentle hands on her face, and a press of lips on hers. Not even Onion, honk-barking his protest at the fact that they had stopped so close to that magnificent cart could keep her from returning the kiss with equal enthusiasm. When he drew back, she beamed, lifting a hand to trace knuckles along his jaw. A habit she was clearly intent on keeping. "So am I."

She did her best to reel-in the over-eager pup as Ix ordered for them, but she was having no luck. She muttered something in Calrathii, as she wound the leash around her hand. The action only brought her closer to the dog, instead of the opposite, since he apparently acquired Herculean strength when faced with an obstacle that was keeping him from food. She made the clicking noise with her teeth that seemed to work before, but he stopped only briefly to look back at her, with all the disobedient sass that a dog's features could muster.

Her translator chip picked up on the language he used with the woman so fluidly Nova almost didn't notice the change. Spanish, she observed. An impossibly old Earthling romance language. Surprising. She cocked her head as she listened, the translations were simple enough, but in the end she still had no idea what any of the food items actually were.

"Oh, it's totally fine," she reassures, giving up on keeping Onion under control and accepting the beverage with her free hand. "Thanks. So, what is this?" She took a drink, without waiting for a response, her features instantly read pleasantly surprised. She generally didn't drink anything the wasn't coffee or water, with the occasional tea thrown in. Whatever this was had a hint of sweetness, but it was offset enough by whatever the primary flavor was the she didn't really notice.

Luckily, Nova had put some slack back into Onion's leash before the piece of meat dropped, or she would have ended up flat on her face with the speed in which the dog retrieved the treat. "Gracias, eso fue muy amable," she says to the woman with a sweet smile.

"Ahh, yes. She was the red-haired human behind the bar the other night, " she begins, turning her attentions back to Ixaaliot, unsure if she had explained that before. "She says we are best friends. I am not quite familiar with the term. There's also, Sol-Aior, he's a bouncer at Radius. They were nice to me when I started working there. We get along, and hang out sometimes. Everyone else is...prickly." She sipped at her drink thoughtfully, picking up her feet to step over Onion's leash to not get tangled in it as he sniffed around. "What about you? Are there actually friends behind your friends-of-friends?"


Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-09-2014

    One of these days her tentacles were going to end up ripping his clothes off. He was, if he was honest, rather looking forward to it. Assuming they were somewhere private when it happened, at least.

    In front of a taco cart was not really the ideal location for that kind of thing.

    It was difficult not to let himself follow the hand that touched him, not to kiss her palms or her wrists or any of the other places that touching him made him want to kiss. There was a time when it had felt alien to him, fingertips as smooth as those possessed by most humanoids. He thought that he'd gotten used to it, and yet it felt so much more natural when she brushed the backs of her fingers against his skin.

    Onion was lucky that he made Nova so happy, or Ix might have hated him a little for ruining the mood so thoroughly. Not that tacos were terribly romantic at the best of times.

    Her willingness to drink something she didn't recognize without actually waiting for his response either said volumes about her bravery, or about her trust in him. He hoped that it was trust. He wanted to believe that she trusted him to know what she liked, that he did know what she liked. "Tamarindo," he explained. "It's… some kind of Terran fruit, I think? Some of them out here are made with fruit that just tastes similar. I don't care for it, but you probably wouldn't care for horchata." He shrugged, accepting of the fact that his sweet tooth would probably keep their tastes running counter to one another.

    He sipped at his drink, and nearly choked when she started speaking Spanish. "De nada," said the woman currently frying their tacos into their appropriate shapes.

    "You speak–" He stopped as he realized the much more likely option, considering she'd never had a taco. "You have a translation upgrade," he corrected, and this time it wasn't a question. "Are you compatible with human tech, or do they make native ones?" Siladen biology wasn't similar enough to human for Ix to use any of the commonly available implants, and Siladen didn't make their own. It simply wasn't a technological field that had ever occurred to anyone on the islands of Maroc, though since joining the Alliance some scientists had begun researching it.

    "I believe 'best' is intended to indicate that you are the closest of your friends, and the most important to one another." He avoided Onion's leash as he snuffled around the concrete in search of more stray meats. "I'm glad you have…" A support system, he wanted to say, but he supposed that might seem strange. "People," he decided instead. "I have… exes. Former clients." He considered the question. "'Friends' is. A loaded term. In my particular form of retirement. Kreska is terrible. But we understand each other. So to speak. It is… difficult to explain. When we talk, it…"

    Whatever rambling explanation he'd been about to give was interrupted as the taqueria woman began handing him cheap paper baskets filled with fried food, grease already beginning to soak through the layers of wax paper and napkins and thin paperboard. While hers were corn tortillas filled with meat that had been shredded and fried and heavily spiced, his own had only spiced potatoes. What they had in common, however, was a heaping amount of cheese, of guacamole, of fried onions and a fried egg on top of them. She'd also given them little disposable forks, because it would almost certainly be impossible to eat these with their hands, despite the convenient shape the fried tortillas gave them. It took all of Ix's hands to juggle the little paper baskets, his drink, and a pile of napkins, his cigarette resting precariously in his mouth.

    He made his way to a nearby table, something that might have been a table and might have been some kind of art fixture. Based on the grease stains marking the surface that he set their baskets on, the local populace had decided that it was a table, regardless of the creator's intent. He sat on a smooth curve of concrete and fiberglass, wiping his hands on a few napkins almost immediately.



Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - megs - 11-09-2014

She took another thoughtful sip of the tamarindo, as he answered her question. Her willingness to drink it was testament enough to whether or not she liked it, but she voiced her favor regardless. "It's actually really good," she chimes, eyeing his own beverage suspiciously as he brought her attention to it. "Ah. Is it super sweet?" she counters. Though, whenever she said the word sweet, there was a vague sense that she didn't quite know what it meant, because she didn't. Not the way others did, at least. She just knew whenever something came her way that was described a such, she tended to find it awful.

She blinked at him when he pointed out her upgrade, she had a habit of not noticing when she was utilizing it. It all just sort of flowed seamlessly as if she were naturally multilingual. "Oh. Uhm. I'm compatible with human systems as long as they aren't neural. Anything like that has to be specifically Calrathii." She pulled Onion back to her feet, ever-determined to instill as sense of obedience in the canine. "There would, however, be no need for me to resort to getting a human upgrade, since Kriion manufactures basically all the same tech. Kriion does it's absolute best to be entirely self-sufficient." She tried not to frown at the mere mention of her home planet. Even though, ultimately, she had been the one to bring it up, it was the sorest of subjects.

She shoved her tentacles back over her shoulder and they flared at her shoulders, as if she'd disturbed a pile of sleeping snakes. "Hmm. Then I guess best is a quite accurate description." Onion was already off and wandering again, having only sat still for a few minutes at best. "Yeah, people. It's nice-didn't really have people before I came to the colony."

She listened as he tried to explain Kreska; which was proving to be quite difficult whenever the other woman was mentioned.

She would have offered to assist in carrying something, but she thought it was better that she not, since corralling Onion was becoming increasingly difficult in the presence of food. "I like to think we're friends now," she quips, as she followed behind him to the table. She sat down opposite him, setting her drink down and crossing one leg over the other; Onion immediately popped up at her side, rising up and pressing front paws against her thigh. She laughed lightly at the passing thought that his enthusiasm matched her own, however she nudged him back to the ground with a larger tentacle and he resolved to settle under the table instead. She heard him fall to his belly, with a huff, as if he were pouting. "Wow," she remarks, taking in the display. "This looks and smells incredible."


Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-09-2014

    "I'm glad you like it," he said, shaking his own drink to rearrange the ice that had settled in the way of his straw. "It's not… that sweet? I don't think. But it is sweet. Some kind of a cinnamon thing." He shrugged as he took another sip; it was strangely grainy, but he'd come to like that about it. It made it feel more like something that someone had made with their hands and taken time on than if it had lacked that texture.

    "I didn't mean to make you self-conscious," he said in regard to her upgrade. "I might have a few myself, if they made them. Not that I've tried very hard, but, well." He shrugged. "I'm not biased against upgrades – well. I say that I'm not, but they never seemed like something for me. Even if they were an option." The corner of his mouth turned upward. "But it might be nice not to make such an ass of myself while ordering lunch."

    He took a drag on his cigarette as he considered the thorny issue of friendship. "I had… I don't know that I had people, really. Maybe a few on Maroc, but we lost touch when I left. And I have a few now, I suppose. Not for the first few decades here, but I don't think I need to reiterate the extent to which things went horribly for me then." It was hard to avoid when explaining his life, who he was now. Twenty Terran Standard years of failure and loathing and a very particular kind of loneliness. He was still lonely now, to an extent, but less so.

    "I'd like to think we're more than friends now," he countered. "Otherwise I'm going to have to make some significant changes to my plans." It came out a touch more suggestive than he'd really intended, voice pitched low as it was in a failed attempt to be quiet. He covered his expression with another drag on his cigarette before putting it out against the side of the concrete, a blackened spot that had clearly seen such treatment before.

    "I think it looks fairly hideous," he said automatically, and he didn't know why he insisted on compulsively disagreeing with her. It was possible that he did this with everyone, and only noticed when it had the potential to interfere with his attempts at seduction. He prodded an egg yolk with his fork, watched it flow out over the rest of his meal, as if this proved his point. "But it does smell almost as good as it tastes." The tortilla came apart with a crunch under his fork, and he took a bite that would have been rudely large for anyone with a smaller mouth.

    "Mmph."



Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - megs - 11-11-2014

She seemed to perk up a bit, smaller tendrils pinwheeling at her neck. "Cinnamon I like," she muses. "It's flavor is mostly aromatic, so it's not as bad as sugar. I put it in my coffee sometimes." Once again she found herself stepping over Onion's leash as he walked circles around her. He seemingly had no concern for how he got from place to place. Zig-zagging to and fro with reckless abandon. 

"Oh, no. It's fine. You didn't. It's not like I have that many, anyway. Just what the government deemed necessary for my..." she paused, not quite sure what to call her position back on Kriion that wouldn't raise any uncomfortable questions. Or potentially lead to an explanation of how she'd been volunteered for ethically questionable experiments. "For my job." She waved the hand not holding the drink, casually, the leash sliding up her arm; doing her best to imply that it wasn't worth elaborating on. She chuckled at his comment, and thinking back on how adorable he'd looked ordering for them.

Nova took a quick sip, one of her larger tentacles curling around her neck. The topic of friends and people was getting a bit concerning. The topic apparently being nothing so noteworthy for either of them. She focused, instead, on the other half of the conversation with a smile. "Definitely more than friends, I think. No changing of plans necessary. I am very interested in these plans playing out." She shook the leash from her hand, leaning to wrap it around the sturdiest looking structure she could find.

She sat upright and she was shaking her head as she did; half-smirk forming at the corner of her mouth, tentacles twisting as he immediately contradicted her. She would have laughed, or shot back with something if she were not distracted by the effort of determining the best way to go about eating the concoction. Even though he was staying out of sight, Onion could still be heard whimpering and snuffling beneath the table. "That's quite a bad habit you have, you know," she replies at length, stabbing at pieces of avocado with her fork.


Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-11-2014

    With a wry curve to his mouth he set his cup on the table, nearer to her. "You can try it, if you'd like. Don't say I didn't warn you." It would be nice if they liked a few of the same things, but he wasn't counting on it. It was probably even sweeter than he thought, considering the way his tastes ran.

    So she'd had a job with her planet's government that necessitated her having a translation implant… and now she was a stripper.

    He shouldn't ask.

    It really wasn't his business.

    "That seems like something of a career change," he said mildly, before silencing any further commentary with another bite of fatty starch. He was starting to think this was the least romantic possible date idea, since he doubted the ability of even the most romantic individual to seduce a person while chewing on fried onions. Onions were going to be causing him a lot of trouble today, obviously.

    "I hope I do justice to your interest," he said behind his hand before taking a drag of his cigarette, which probably did nothing to improve his breath. It made him feel better, anyway. "My plans aren't actually very creative," he warned. "They mostly involve… kissing you a great deal. Initially."

    He was unbelievably bad at this.

    "Force of habit," he said. "I'm not used to talking to people worth agreeing with. Blame it on the lawyer thing."



Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - megs - 11-12-2014

Nova reached past her own drink to curl digits around his. It was clear his warning had not fallen on deaf ears by the way she tentatively slipped the straw between her lips. She took a small sip, and her opinion flourished across her features immediately as they screwed up in a distasteful grimace. Shaking her head, she forced herself to swallow and pushed to cup back to him as if it had offended her. "That is nothing but sugar," her tone was accusatory, but it seemed to be more directed to the beverage than him. 

The tamarindo was retrieved and sucked down generously, both to rid herself of the taste of the horchata and to provide ample amount of time for her to avoid commenting on wildly contrasting job choices. "That was idea," she replies, finally, picking up her fork once more to resume eating. "I came to Osiris for a change of scenery. Would have seemed pointless to keep doing the same thing." Her answer seemed to be conclusive, even though his comment's underlying question still remained unresolved. Not that she would have been able to do the same thing on the colony; there wasn't exactly a desperate need for reconnaissance missions and assassinations. 

Onion sounded off one of his unattractive honk-barks from beneath the table, his tail swishing furiously across the ground. He was either tired of being ignored, or enough food wasn't being dropped accidentally to meet his quota. 

"Lucky for both of us, then, that I quite enjoy kissing you," she murmurs before taking another bite. It was deceptively casual, as if they had not spend the greater half of the last two days with brazen implications that they had very intimate plans for one another. 

"I will indeed blame it on the lawyer thing," she reinforces with a lilt of chuckles. "Since, I consider myself to be very agreeable, personally."


Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-12-2014

    "I have had much sweeter," he said, amused, taking his drink back. "I'll be more careful from now on," he said, and he meant it. It was unlikely he'd risk offering her anything even remotely sweet again. At least it meant he'd get to keep sweets to himself.

    Taking another bite of his tacos, a piece of egg white fell on the table before it reached his mouth; without thinking, he grabbed it and tossed it beneath the table, and Onion had eaten it before he could change his mind. Feeding table scraps to dogs was absolutely not something that a pet owner was supposed to do. But it did shut the dog up briefly, which was nice.

    "It seems to suit you," he said, before he realized that this might seem like an offensive observation. "I mean. The change of scenery seems to have been good for you. You seem. Happy. With life. Generally." He didn't miss the fact that she hadn't answered the question he hadn't asked, but he hadn't asked for a reason. It was the same reason he hadn't done a search on the name at the top of her messages, hadn't asked about the different name on her official ID. It was a matter of trust, of privacy.

    There were five sides to every story, and a simple extranet search would only ever tell one of those. He'd rather hear hers, when she trusted him enough to tell it. Regardless of who she'd been, she was Nova now.

    "I feel like I might be getting the better part of that deal," he said, because he couldn't imagine that she could possibly enjoy being kissed by him as much as he enjoyed doing it. "Because you are… very agreeable. Even when I'm not kissing you. Though… more when I am." He hesitated before taking another bite. "Are the tacos as good as they look?"



Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - megs - 11-13-2014

She made another face, clearly unhappy with the risk she had taken and not at all fond of the idea that there were things even sweeter. "I guess I just keeping thinking I will find something I like. Kind of like a 'screw you' to biology, because I want to eat candy, just like everyone else." Candy, however, was the worst of all the confectioneries she'd had the displeasure of consuming. Chocolate was probably in second place, followed very closely by ice cream.

"You're going to spoil him," she sings teasingly after the damage had been done. Onion yipped happily and she could feel him moving around beneath the table as if something else would soon be coming his way.

She nodded at his observation as a placeholder in between bites. She pushed pieces of meat and cheese around with her fork, as she replied. "I like it," she begins before, pausing. "Well, I mean. I don't necessarily like Osiris, specifically. I'm happy with everything else, though." She cast a glace in his direction, there was small curve to her mouth. She had also made an observation of her own, and it was that he seemed to be none of the adjectives he had just used to describe her.

The exchange of information about her past and his was wildly unfair. He'd offered many more details, but as a whole they'd only half explained the reason behind his seemingly perpetual bad mood.

"Nope, the whole deal is good," she counters, refusing to let him interject any hint of self-deprecation. Tentacles fell forward over her shoulders in a wave, as she looked down to what was left of her meal. "They are incredible, and I feel like my life has been changed for the better over them," she followed her over-exaggeration with a laugh.


Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-14-2014

    "I'm sure you'll find something someday," he assured her, already thinking of all the least sweet candies he knew of. Not many, but he knew there were some, and he would buy her all of them.

    This was the kind of dangerous thinking that lead to accidental dog ownership.

    "That seems to be a problem I have," he admitted, which she'd probably noticed by now. So far in their acquaintance he'd tipped her 300 credits on a 50 credit bill, and bought her a dog. Of the many personal flaws to which he could lay claim, stinginess was not one of them. It might have been better for him if it was.

    There was a bitter tug to the corner of his mouth, but he hid it behind a heavily-laden for. "I don't mind Osiris," he said after he'd swallowed. "It would take an entirely different universe, I think, to make me any happier."

    Or to have you with me all the time, to make you happy for years and to have you waiting for me after hard days-

    "Most people don't care for it here," he continued, "so I don't blame you for having mixed feelings."

    There was little for her to gain with flattery, which was part of why he believed she meant it. And he wanted to believe it, anyway, that she found him attractive and wanted him even half as much as he wanted her. "Good," he said, and the pull at his mouth was softer, sweeter. "I will take full credit for having improved your life, then."



Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - megs - 11-15-2014

Her first response was to laugh, because she had indeed noticed this habit. All in all it was very sweet, but she couldn't help but feel like she might not be properly returning the favors. Hopefully, soon, she would be able to catch up.

    "Oh, I certainly hope not," she replies softly, placing one of her hands up on the table in an offer for one of his. "Seeing as I can not offer you an alternate universe, and I would like very much like to make you happier."

    "It's not the colony's fault," she admits with a sigh. "I just miss living planet-side. Sometimes, it seems too cramped and closed off here. I miss fresh air and the...openness of it all." It certainly wasn't Kriion she was describing with this confession, but she had visited enough planets and watched enough late night documentaries to know there was something out there that she wanted.

    She fidgeted in her seat, before uncrossing and crossing her legs again in the opposite direction. Onion's head poked out from under the table as if the movement had been some sort of sign. He was trying and failing to wiggle his way into her lap. She'd finished off her meal, so she let him stay propped up against her knees, since there was nothing for him to scavenge. She pet him idly with her free hand. "As you should, but you've been doing that without tacos."


Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-18-2014

    He would have blushed, if he'd had the capacity. There was the neck thing, but that didn't really serve the same function, work under the same circumstances. He took her hand, and squeezed it gently. "I don't need a universe," he said, "except the one with you in it."

    Nena ala what the hell kind of corny garbage–

    "I spent most of my time on Maroc indoors," he admitted, "so it wasn't that much of a change for me. This feels… big. Compared to an island." Finished with his meal, he pushed it aside so he could hold her hand with two of his. He brushed the knuckles of her hand with his thumbs. "Maybe I can help it feel a little bigger for you," he said, with maybe a touch of hope. He didn't want to imagine that she couldn't be happy on Osiris, couldn't be happy staying here.

    "You've been making me happy since we met," he said. "I don't know if that's. Obvious. But this is very happy. For me."



Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - megs - 11-21-2014

Nova beamed. The expression was caused by both his words and his hands tangled with hers. All of her tentacles pinwheeled in on themselves, but the gesture was softer somehow, in comparison to the moves they made when she was annoyed.

    "It actually seems bigger already," she pulled her gaze away from where their hands were linked to catch his eyes. "Entirely my fault though. This is the first time I've bothered to leave my quadrant. " She chuckled, and used her free hand to uncurl a tendril and push it behind her ear. "There's a whole colony I've not seen and I have the audacity to call it small. Kind of ridiculous."

    Onion was not at all pleased that the small amount of attention he had been receiving was pulled away. He dropped down on all fours to pace and whine.

    "I am very glad to hear that," she squeezes his hand, leaning forward slightly as if to be closer to him. "I'm starting to be able to tell. Which is nice, because I try very hard."

    She glanced down at Onion who seemed mere minutes away from making a scene. As best a dog could anyway, which probably included lots of barking and desperate snuffling. "Did you still want to go to the beach?" Her question was for Ixaaliot, but her sights had dropped to Onion. She ceased playing with her tentacles and dropped the hand to Onion's level to keep him at bay for a bit longer.


Wisteria and Violets [Closed] - Tindome - 11-21-2014

    That smile was going to drive him insane. He'd go to dangerous lengths for a smile like that. What a relief to know that all he needed to do was embarrass himself. Maybe also buy her a dog. He didn't think he'd be able to do that a second time, but he could always hold it in reserve.

    "I will show you every centimeter of this colony – every centimeter worth seeing. Until you're completely sick of traveling and you're begging me to stay home." He paused, the slight twitch when he realized he may have accidentally implied something. "Because you're tired. Not for. The other reason." This time his pause instead carried a small twitch to him mouth. "Maybe for the other reason."

    He cleared his throat as he began gathering the trash, all four hands absorbed in the task. "Right. Yes. Beach. Those are some of the centimeters I am going to show you." He disposed of them in a public bin, waited for her to follow before leading her along the sidewalk again. He thought about lighting up another cigarette, but thought better of it; they didn't like smoking at the beach, and he didn't want to be the asshole tossing filters in the sand. Even if they had droids to wash the artificial sand at the end of the day, anyway.

    "It's extremely artificial," he warned, "so if you're used to naturally formed beaches, you might be… disappointed. But. It doesn't feel small. I'm told it's lovely when the lighting switches to the night cycle."