Private Notation From The Stars

[Arcturus Dinn]

She joined him in the kitchen and proceeded to ogle him from afar while he worked his magic and whipped them up something tasty to eat. Arcturus had been surprised to find a decent amount of fresh stuff onboard, as though Ishani had been preparing for a trip in kind, though maybe she just kept more up to date with her ships stock than he did. Mostly he had just basic rations and MREs unless he was planning to be onboard for a while. Which in more recent times wasn't commonplace at all.

Talks of baking had him glancing over his shoulder, giving her a weird look.

"What kind of what?" he inquired, as he turned back to the stove and continued to cook. "Cake?" Arcturus shrugged his shoulders some at that, and pulled the meat from the pan, setting it onto each of the waiting plates. He focused on finishing up the potatoes next, giving them something of a nice crust. "Dunno. Never really had time for such frivolity."

No desserts?

No desserts.

Ishani Dinn​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani stared at him. “Do… Do you not know what cake is?” Her tone was surprised, not condescending.

As he continued talking, she inferred that he did know what cake was, or at least had a vague idea of what it was, but had never eaten any before. Which was a travesty, but unfortunately not all that surprising. He didn’t even have a birthday before she came along, after all, and that was the one occasion in which cake was usually made, right?

“Frivolity? You mean to tell me you’ve never had cookies? Ice cream? Chocolate? Candy? None of that?” That might explain his weird reaction to Chthonic, which had a candylike scent. He probably didn’t know what it was he was smelling, didn’t know what to make of it. “...Would you like to try it? Or are Sith not allowed to have sugar?”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

She seemed taken aback by the notion that he'd never had cakes and the like, which only made him all the more confused. "Should I have?" he inquired, before shaking his head. Potatoes finished, he plated them too. Then shifted his attention to the second pan which had some veggies grilling within it.

"It's not a Sith thing" he told her with a stupefied tone, "I just... Well..."

Well what?

He shrugged again. Boy, he was shrugging a lot lately.

"Food was hard enough to come by for a while there. It's just sustenance to me, Ish, nothing else. I enjoy cooking it, I derive pleasure from it in that sense, but otherwise?"

Did he?

Did he want to try it?

He swallowed, and focused back on the food. Plated up the veggies, and then carried both plates to the table where she was sat. Avoided her gaze long enough to return to the kitchen to make them each a glass of juice.

"What if I don't like it?"

Ishani Dinn​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“I mean, it’s not really a bad thing if you didn’t. Sugary food isn’t good for you, it’s just…” This was proving harder to explain than she thought. She didn’t want to make him feel bad about it. It really wasn’t that big a deal… right?

“Most people like them. It’s like junk food, you eat it for… fun?” That probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Or worse, it made it sound like candy was akin to drugs. “It’s more than just sustenance. You eat it because it tastes good.”

Speaking of tasting good, she followed him to the table and dug into the food he’d cooked. As he went back to get the juice, she heard him ask “What if I don’t like it?”

“Then you can make me eat my words, I guess.” She took the cup from him. “You could try a variety of things. Unless you’re somebody who just hates sweet stuff in general, there should be something you’ll wind up liking.” She sipped the juice, then quietly added, “And if you don’t like sweet stuff, I dunno why you’re with me...”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

He pondered it for a moment, before ultimately shrugging his shoulders. "Sure, I'll try something," he said, as he slid into the seat across from her and set the glasses of juice down. Then he started to cut his own food, and ate in silence for a while. His mind continued to race, though, so the silence was inevitably going to end.

"So people really eat things for the fun of it, for the flavour, rather than because they have to eat?"

It made sense in some regard, he supposed, but at the same time... Well, he'd never had the luxury of being able to pick and choose. Even here, where there were various options available to him, he'd gone with what he knew. Meat, potatoes, vegetables. The meat would change, as would the carbs, but the general idea remained the same. Should he switch that up too? Should he try different food options?

Well if anywhere would have variety, surely it would be Coruscant right?

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

He said he’d try it, and for a while it seemed that was the end of the conversation. Ishani was preoccupied with eating, though in her head she was trying to remember whether or not she had cake mix on the ship. She tended to always keep a fully stocked pantry—a habit that had been her mother’s before her—so there was a chance she did. In fact, she was almost certain of it, though she couldn’t quite remember where she’d put it…

Arcturus suddenly spoke. He had the tendency to do that, and it had long since ceased to surprise her when she would abruptly hear his voice after a long period of silence. His question made her smirk. “Yeah, people do a lot of things just for the fun of it, you know.” Kind of like what they had done together earlier in the cockpit.

Innuendo aside, did she have the damned cake mix or not? “Hang on a second,” she said, getting up from her chair. In the kitchen she began to rifle around in cabinets and drawers. “I think I have something around here somewhere…” The top half of her body disappeared from view; rattling and clattering was heard, before she emerged triumphantly with a box. “Aha! This is…” She looked at the label. “...Yellow cake. Which, as a kid I thought was supposed to be vanilla flavored, but I don’t know if that’s the cake—the case, yeah, it’s the cake too. But do we have frosting…?” She stuck her head back into the pantry.

Incidentally yellow cake is, in fact, vanilla flavored. The more you know.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Wait, so now food was like...

Okay, that left him all the more confused. He even choked slightly on what he was eating, though he washed it down quickly enough with the juice. Then he watched as she stepped away from the table and started to climb on the counters in search of something from within the cupboards.

Arcturus just sort of stared, his food long forgotten.

"Um, are you alright..?" She seemed alright, but she also seemed a little... Crazy? No not crazy. He'd just never seen her this determined before, at least not when it came to something so mundane.

He was about to stand up, to offer a hand, when she pulled out a box of some sort.

"You're going to bake?" he inquired, taking another sip of juice. After pondering it for a moment longer, a grin spread over his expression. "Cool!"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani stopped what she was doing after hearing him cough, peering worriedly at him. "You okay? Don't choke or anything." He then asked her if she was okay. “Yeah, I’m gonna bake a cake!” she replied cheerfully.

She eventually located some chocolate frosting. A vague memory of having once offered Arc brownies (which he never touched; she wound up giving them to Nostre) resurfaced in her mind. "Arc, do you have anything against chocolate?" she asked. If he did, she supposed she could make something else from scratch…

Either way, yeah, she was baking a cake. Five days to Coruscant, what else was she gonna do? Use him as a test subject for her perfumes? Actually try to (shudder) get some real work done? Engage in carnal acts in every area of this vessel? Watch holo shows? Probably all of the above at one point or another, but for now she was baking a cake.

She hadn't done it in a while, but the instructions were written on the back of the box anyway. It didn't take very long to mix everything together, pour it in two pans, and put it in the oven (or whatever the starship equivalent of an oven was). "Forty minutes baking time. What are we gonna do for the next forty minutes?"

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he assured her once he'd got the coughing under control. She proclaimed that she was going to bake a cake, and then set about doing precisely that, and Arcturus simply watched from the dining table with a curious expression.

He'd long since finished his meal, and so he got up and started cleaning around her, removing their dishes and any extras she made in the process and cleaning them so that the kitchen wasn't too chaotic.

By which point the cakes were in the oven and Ishani seemed at a loss for what to do.

"What do you usually do when you're waiting for a cake to bake?" he inquired, leaning back against the table. "Come to think of it, how do you usually pass time in general?"

Arcturus read or worked on projects, maybe Ishani was similarly inclined. He didn't really know though because they were often busy doing things together.

They had a few days to figure that sort of thing out though.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"What do you usually do when you're waiting for a cake to bake?"

"I dance a jig and stand on my head."

But when he followed it up with a more general question about how she passed the time, she grew shy. At first it was her usual demure look, but as she opened her mouth to reply, she hesitated, and it swiftly became actual timidity, which isn’t half as lovely. Ishani was one of those sorts who is reluctant to tell people about her hobbies and interests, whether out of fear that she’d be made fun of or because she didn’t think they’d be interested anyway. She’d always considered herself either too strange or too boring, and never anything in-between—she was silly that way.

“I read,” she finally said. “Books. But not… Well, mostly just for entertainment.” By this she meant novels and poetry and other things which could be dismissed as frivolous. “I read, uh, more important books too, but I don’t like to study. I prefer to learn from experience.” Her unwillingness to study up was probably directly tied to her struggles as an acolyte, which she knew, but couldn’t bring herself to sit through dry, ancient tomes full of outdated, dense language.

“What about you?” she asked, turning the question on Arc. A moment later, she smirked. “Wow, have we really never talked about this before? Too busy, I guess.”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"Oh now that I've got to see," he stated to the mention of jigs and headstands, grinning cheekily as he did. He rose up from his seat and approached her, reaching out to take one of her hands in his just as he noticed the solemn thoughtfulness wash over her. She seemed reserved, defensive even, in the wake of his question.

Arcturus' cheerful demeanor waned a little. He was about to tell her that she didn't need to answer, that it didn't matter so much what she did he was simply curious and hoping to learn more about her, when she finally responded.

A response that had the grin returning.

"I love to read" he assured her with a firm nod. "You may have only ever caught me reading esoteric texts, but I'm into fiction too. Why did you seem so scared to admit that?"

He frowned again, and gave her hand a little squeeze. "You don't think I'm going to judge you, do you? Because... Well, that'd never happen. If it makes you happy, it makes me happy. It's as simple as that.'"

She turned the question back on him though, to which he shrugged.

"Most of what I do pertains to training in some way. Reading, sparring, projects. Honestly, projects are my favourite. Doesn't even feel like work, it's just... A hobby these days."

Her realization that they hadn't spoken about this sort of thing before was met with a chuckle.

"Probably because when we're around each other our other hobbies aren't exactly on our mind, no?"

As if to prove a point, he leaned in and kissed her forehead gently. Not enough to derail what they were doing, but enough to prove a point.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"Oh now that I've got to see."

“I’m not properly dressed for it right now, but maybe later?”

He had noticed her hesitation. She clasped her hands in front of her—an unconscious nervous habit that had the effect of hunching her shoulders forward. “I… I just figured it wouldn’t sound very interesting. Ooo, reading, wow. Anybody can do it. Although, since you read too, I guess that would make us both uninteresting… but you’re very interesting, to me at least.” She didn’t say it outright, but she felt like she was boring in comparison. That was her explanation for why he had so many more friends than her, and seemed to be much better liked.

In reality, it probably had more to do with the fact that she’d made a perfume that repelled certain beings, and she was also surrounded by Sith, who were not the sort of people you wanted to become popular with anyway.

"Probably because when we're around each other our other hobbies aren't exactly on our mind, no?"

She closed her eyes as he kissed her on the forehead. “Yeah, well, you remember how we only found out each other’s ages after our first kiss?” She snorted. “This entire affair has been kiss kiss, bang bang, I guess we’ll get to know each other along the way. You know, if you were a Chaldean, we’d have to have gone through a whole courtship first…”

She started to reach around, about to grab a handful of his cake, if you know what I’m sayin’, but she stopped herself. Considering the content of their current conversation, and after what happened in the cockpit, she was trying to keep her mind out of the gutter for once. Y’know, just to see how long she could go without smut. Her hands rested awkwardly on his hips before she let them drop.

“Uh, I just remembered, I… need to go feed my pet dragon, actually.” With a huff, she opened a cabinet, took out a container full of small rocks, poured some into her hand, and left the kitchen.

Depending on whether Arc followed her, he might be surprised to find that she did, in fact, have a pet dragon. Well, a Dantari Shard Drake™, to be exact. At this age it was small, baby-sized really, and made of crystals the color of rose quartz. Having fallen into a state of hibernation, it woke up when she patted it on the head and began to devour the rocks in her palm.

Truly, Ishani was the most boring person who ever lived.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"To be fair," he stated, of their first encounter, "That was a life or death situation, Ishani. Adrenaline makes it difficult to think straight." He pulled another silly face, before shaking his head. "I'm glad for it, though, as weird an adventure as it was. I'm still so mad that they tried to blame everything on you in the end."

His jaw set, and he glowered slightly. Still that was a thing of the past now, wasn't it?

Then came the real kicker.

"Your what?"

A dragon?

Had she said a dragon?

He hurried after her through the ship and sure enough, there it was. A crystalline beasty. He stared at it in awe, more so when it began to crunch through literal rocks, then glanced over at Ishani.

"Excuse me, what? How were you keeping this from me? You lead with this, Ishani. 'Oh I keep exotic pets in my spare time, and sometimes I read too'. Lead with it.... You don't bury it!"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“I had just woken up after passing out from the strain of healing your stab wound. It was nighttime, there was nobody around, and you were sitting under a tree out in the open, doodling in your little notebook. If you’re going to blame it on anything, blame the moonlight and the stars.” Although from what she remembered, the planet they’d been on didn’t seem to have a moon.

“Well, I never had any pets growing up, so I’m still getting used to it.” She handed Arc some of the rocks so he could feed the dragon as well. “I just got this thing like a week ago. It was a party favor at this stupid masquerade ball I snuck into...”

Well, that just created more questions than it answered, didn’t it?

“It was in the Sith Empire,” she explained. “You were busy or else I’d have brought you along. I didn’t really do much except eat and sell some of my perfumes to a couple people. There was one plant lady there who was a little too touchy-feely, although I think she meant well. She just didn’t understand boundaries. Anyway, she offered to show me her garden full of plants that I might use as ingredients in my perfumes, but then she never got back to me, so I guess that was a bust.” Probably for the best, given that she was a Sith and had mentioned that she used to eat people.

“Wait, none of that had anything to do with the dragon—uh, the egg was in the gift box they gave me at the entrance, and it had a piece of flimsiplast with instructions on how to care for it. I named it Rose, because I’m bad at naming things.”

The dragon let out a little screech upon hearing its name.

“It apparently likes it, though.”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"The stars were beautiful" he agreed, wondering all at once where that journal had ended up. He'd been drawing the constellations, keeping watch over the camp in case one of the goons returned. "I think you eclipsed all of that, though. You were so sweet, just trying to offer help. Not the best trait around Sith, but... Endearing."

Yeah, endearing was the word. He'd fallen for her hard when he first found her in the forest, surrounded by the trio of fools. Not that he'd ever admit as much, of course. But surviving together? Fighting together? Yeah... That had certainly expedited the process, hadn't it?

He took the offered rocks and held them out on his hand, the way one would approach feeding a horse. It was a cute little thing wasn't it? But the way in which it crunched through its mineral dense meal was a little unnerving. Today rocks, tomorrow skulls?

Heh, not a bad idea actually.

"How large to they grow?" he inquired, before she began to explain how she'd gotten them in the first place.

"You lead an interesting life, Ish. Here I am working on dumb little projects, and helping Sith with their work, and you're off attending masquerade balls and rearing dragon eggs."

The name was given, and then he rolled his eyes.

"Well now you have to at least refer to it as she. Rose... It suits her."

Was it a girl? What did he know? But Rose felt very feminine to him. And it was softer sounding than it.

"Careful or soon you'll have a gaggle of creatures following you around too."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Hey, you carried me up that hill in the first place. You were a perfect gentleman, even when you sprayed yourself with mislabeled perfume.” Now that she thought about it, Blush was probably partly to blame too. Ah, who cares! He’d just called her sweet and endearing. “I adore you, Arc.”

How large do they grow? “Eh, two meters, I think? I’ve seen bigger dragons back home.” She gasped. "Arc, your projects aren't dumb! You helped me make a sword, and your dagger, and the sand...!"

Finished with the rocks, Rose hopped off the table she’d been sleeping on and glided down into Ishani’s lap, where it immediately received belly rubs. “Did Arc just assume your gender? Just because you’re pink?” she cooed, laughing. “You don’t even know what a girl is, do you? Aw, I guess you can be a she. Go get ‘im, girl.”

She scooped Rose up and plopped her into Arc’s lap, where the dragon laid on her back, clearly wanting attention. Ishani watched carefully to make sure nothing went wrong—though she was looking at Arc like she wanted to "get him" herself.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

He chuckled.

"Yeah, maybe don't mislabel them in the future. Wasn't quite the wake up call I was hoping for..."

Now she was being all cute, and he just grinned like a dork her way. This was a nice way to pass the time, he decided. Just sitting, talking, being silly. That there was a literal crystalline dragon here too was just the icing on the cake.

Speaking of, he could sort of smell it baking. Even he had to admit it smelled good.

"You have dragons back home?" he inquired, raising a brow. Had she told him that before? If she had he didn't remember. Either way. "Two meters... Whew. You're gonna be a big girl aren't you Rose?" Yep, definitely the chomp down on a skull type if she allowed it. Would Ish though? Probably not. Nobody wanted a pet that could eat you.

Well, Arc had several but still.

"Well I suppose some projects are better than others, but still. I like the sand, doesn't mean it's not a silly premise."

Her next words had him frowning, and he shook his head firmly. "Excuse you, colour has nothing to do with it. You named her Rose, that's on you Ishani."

Rose was a girls name. There, he'd said it.

Either way soon enough the dragon was plopped down in his lap, and Arcturus made a point of fussing on her adoringly. Little cutie... Definitely cuter than his creatures, but then he hadn't chosen his for looks. Hadn't really chosen them at all. More, they'd chosen him...

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Sorry for accidentally awakening your sexuality, Mr. Ace.” She could also smell the cake. “Yeah, Chaldean dragons. They only appear once every seven years, when they migrate. They’re huge. They breathe fire, too—luckily, they’re not much interested in people.”

She continued to be offended on his behalf. “As if my perfumes aren’t silly too. Give yourself some credit, you’re…” She trailed off, abruptly realizing what he was doing. “Why you… Arc, I get it. You got me. I’m a hypocrite. We’re both the most amazing and interesting people who ever lived, actually.”

He looked disapproving of her joke. “I named her Rose because she looks like rose quartz. So there.”

Rose rolled around happily, chasing his hands and chittering in an approximation of laughter. Arc’s smile, not a goofy grin but a genuine smile, took Ishani’s breath away. How long she sat like that, just enjoying the moment, she didn’t know. But when she heard the oven beep, she let out a disappointed sigh and got up to take care of it.

Disappointed that the cake was ready? Man, did she have it bad for him.

She came back a few minutes later. “Gotta let it cool down for a little while,” she muttered. Rose had begun to lose interest; she was a little like a cat in that she would demand attention, but once she’d had enough, that was it. She hopped back up onto the table, fluttering her crystalline wings and preening. “She certainly fits in with the rest of the ship.”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

It was always nice to lock someone in a trap of their own devising, and Ishani's reaction when she realized the parallels between the both of their projects was nothing short of perfection. He smirked when she vocalized that realization, and continued to fuss the dragon for as long as Rose would permit.

Ultimately it didn't end up being as long as he'd have liked. But that was fine...

"Still named her Rose" he grumbled in response to talks of the name. All the same the crystal dragon didn't seem to much mind at all. No doubt to it a name was just a name.

While Ishani was out of the room he pondered the existence of the fire breathing dragons she'd spoken of. Why was it that he wanted to see them for himself? Why was it he wanted one for himself?

No. No more animals. He didn't need more...

But want..?

No. Stop it Arc.

The girl returned, muttering something about letting the cake cool, and by this point Arcturus had found himself somewhere to sit and observe. "Yeah, you definitely have a ... theme?" Was theme the right word..? "Aesthetic? Either way, it goes together well. Even if being in this ship is incredibly jarring..."

Like being enclosed in a box of glass.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"Aw, it's not so bad once you get used to it—although I admit, I sorta love Leviathan more. And not just because it's your ship, though it certainly suits you."

As for a theme? Hm. "Crystals and gems, dragons and mermaids. Some plants…" She glanced toward a wall, where a potted plant was growing behind the isinglass. "Nature… Maybe I'm an elementalist. Or at the very least a naturalist. I love wild, growing things."

She'd come to that conclusion suddenly. As she said it aloud, it sounded right. Earth in stone, fire in the breath of dragons, water for mermaids… What about wind, though? Well, dragons could fly… eh, maybe it didn't need to all line up perfectly.

Picking up on his interest in the dragons, she smiled. "I've seen them once or twice. Maybe, uh… do you think I could show you my memory of the dragons?" She'd never done such a thing, but they had experimented with telepathy before. In a softer voice, she asked, "Do you want to see?"

Arcturus Dinn​