Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Podracing Performance

[Lief]

Hand removed from hair, book floating away, and then a head within her lap.

All of a sudden the peaceful paradise she had forged for herself, and for Cotan of course, was over, and soon enough she was staring down into the cheeky grin and face of innocence presented by him. One slender brow rose rather curiously for a moment, before she simply chuckled.

"You're a piece of work, you know that?"

Fingertips found his hair once again, brushing it back slightly, before she let out a long sigh.

"I am a little tired," she said, before a small pout wormed its way over her lips, "But I was also enjoying that chapter on Corellian tea blends..." Not that there was likely much tea left on Corellia. A fact which made her sadder than she could possibly express.

"A bed?"

She tipped her head slowly to the left. She had heard that, right? He'd said a bed... Not her bed?

A sheepish little grin replaced the pout, and she leaned down to kiss the top of his hair.

"Well, maybe you'd care to join me then since you're so concerned about my sleeping habits. That way we both get what we want..."

It wasn't until after she'd said it that she realized how bad that sounded, and her whole face lit up red like lifeday decorations. She opened her mouth to explain herself, to try and reiterate as to what she'd meant, but nothing but a few stuttered sounds came out.


[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan's grin grew wider when Asha realized just what she had said. She had fallen, quite perfectly, into his little trap of words. "You're really cute when you blush, you know that?" he jokingly asked her, starting to sit up. "Why, you've been so red-faced today I could almost be convinced you were part Zeltron." Perish the thought of what things might have been like on the ship if she was part Zeltron. That'd be more a recipe for disaster than anything else.

He got his heels underneath him, pushing himself up to a standing position. Afterwards, he reached down to help Asha up. "And yes, I think I'd be happy to join you," he said, leaning over and kissing the girl on the forehead. With Rhia fully asleep and no actual responsibilities to take care of for the day, Cotan was finally able to return to being the same spontaneous man he had been when he'd first gone to Ceto to join the Je'daii. It was a nice feeling, getting to go back to 'normal.'

He reached out to take her hand again, starting to wak back towards where their rooms were. As it stood, however, there was one question that had yet to be answered. "So, which will we take?" he asked, entirely nonplussed, compared to how Asha had been earlier. After his moment of embarassment earlier that day, he was taking everything else in stride. "I recommend the captain's cabin, honestly. Fewer berries for me to have to resist the urge to eat, and the sheets are nice and soft—if in a bit of disarray." He stopped near the doors to each, looking back at Asha. "Your choice, though."

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

It was honestly nice to see Cotan back to himself, and through her embarrassment she could not help but wonder on ways to draw it out of him more even when Rhia was around. No doubt the girl would benefit from seeing a little tom-foolery every now and then, show her that the Galaxy didn't have to be so serious all the time. Though, with Cotan as a Master, that had probably already been made clear. Even when in super-serious-Master-mode he joked around, and often - Asha had noticed - to the confusion of his student.

"Zeltrons are supposed to be pretty," she said, self-deprecatingly, before sticking her tongue out and reaching up to take the offered hand. Soon enough she was up on her feet, and between Cotan's words and the soft kiss atop her forehead the blush had no chance at all to die down.

Led down the hall toward their rooms, she glanced between the two doors and tried to make a choice even before the decision was handed across to her. Though in Asha's mind it was an obvious decision, and spurred on by Cotan's sudden show of confidence, apparently not at all phased by the conversation happening between them as she clearly was, she made her choice.

"Let's take your cabin," she whispered, words barely audible. In fact, had there been so much as another sound on the ship they might have been drowned out entirely.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Mine it is."

Cotan poked at the control console for his door, opening up his room insantly. Inside, it was...quite a bit messier than the rest of the ship, between his unmade bed, the mess of books all around his desk, and the assorted other items he had around, ranging from training equipment to various small mechanical parts that might've been from any number of blasters, datapads, and even some droid pieces. The juxtaposition just from entering the room compared to the hallway outside could be somewhat jarring to anybody with a more fastidious sense of cleanliness.

He released Asha's hand, making his way to the bed and flopping over onto it similarly to how he'd done at the couch earlier. Rather than remaining with his face buried in a pillow, however, he quickly rolled over so that he could continue to breathe and speak. "By the way, Asha," he started once she came to lay down, "I think you're more beautiful than any Zeltron." He reached out, drawing her closer in to him. "And that's without all those fancy pheromones they use to make you like them."

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

Though Asha herself kept a very tidy ship, which would have been evident if they had chosen her room over his, the disorder held within Cotan's room did not bother her. Not even in the slightest. It actually felt rather warm and inviting, lived in as opposed to sterile.

Of course, it also helped that she'd come inside the room earlier to fetch Rhia's paperwork.

Cotan was quick to flop, and Asha was just as quick to follow. She slipped into the bed at his side and almost immediately found her way under the blankets despite the fact that the room itself was hardly all that cold. Definitely more of a comfort thing. Her eyes closed, listening intently when he spoke and pulled her against him.

Having her eyes closed, of course, did not stop the blush from returning to her cheeks, even if she could not see it.

"Stop it," she whispered, though a bashful smile had replaced itself upon her lips. Asha had never been one for compliments. "Besides, what makes you think I don't have fancy pheromones?" She grinned, before nestling her face in closer to him and allowing herself to drift into an unconscious state.

Apparently she had been more exhausted than she'd previously thought.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Lief]

For the first time since she'd entered the galley that morning, Rhia woke and felt... Normal.

There was a subtle ache within her head, a tender thudding, but when she lifted herself up from the pillow her mind did not sway, and she did not feel nauseous. The relief she felt was palpable, so much so that she let out a quick sigh and immediately rushed to her feet. Still no uneasiness. No stumbling.

She reached for the cup of water on the tray beside her bed and chugged it down, before pulling free a couple of dry crackers and nibbling on them. Her stomach growled in response, and she became acutely aware of the fact that it was most definitely past dinner time.

Which meant she'd missed two meals.

Surprisingly, though her stomach had growled, she did not feel any more hungry than she usually did. And oftentimes she had to be reminded to eat, because it was very easy for her to forget.

Tiptoeing across the room she stepped out into the hallway while finishing up the first of the crackers. Her gaze darted left and then right, but no sound could really be heard save for the occasional noise from the cockpit.

Perhaps that was where Cotan and Asha were?

Stepping up into the room of flashing lights and consoles, Rhia was surprised to find only Kiss. Though she could not speak binary, she knew that he was able to understand them and so she posed just one very simple question that could be answered with a gesture at the very least. Or maybe the droid would be kind and show her.

"Where's Master Cotan, Kiss?"

She spied a chrono, which was synced to their sleep-and-food schedule since they weren't on world, and just as she had suspected it was, in fact, past dinner time.

So where was everyone?

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

K1-S5 had had a fairly boring day.

After dropping the ship out of hyperspace, the droid had not seen much else of any of the organics on the ship. They'd bustled about a bit, sure, but overall they hadn't paid much mind to the astromech. Not that K1 didn't mind; it just meant there was less work that he'd be told to do, and he could go about doing what he felt needed to be done. Like tuning up the shield generator, which they'd never finished doing after the pirate attack. Trying to increase the flow-rates through the water reprocessor. Tightening down a loose bolt on the hyperdrive that rattled every time the ship made a jump and had been driving the droid absolutely nuts ever since its audioreceptors had first noticed.

The droid had just been finished modifying the navicomputer (having to satisfy itself with only a three percent efficiency increase, given the lack of parts currently available to it) when it heard footsteps approaching. The flat unit that made up its 'head' swung around backwards, noticing that the being approaching it was the same one that the larger organics had been worried over earlier. Thankfully, the girl no longer seemed to be intoxicated. ::Cotan!Status=Asleep,:: K1 reported faithfully, although it wasn't yet sure that the young plant-based lifeform could understand yet. The access panels to the navicomputer circuits and droid brain were quickly replaced and bolted back down, before the rest of the droid's body spun around to match the head.

::Command: Follow,:: K1 beeped at the girl, before rolling out of the cockpit. The sound of footsteps on the metal floor panels made it obvious that she was doing so. Dutifully, it led the way back to the captain's cabin, hooking into the computer jack in the hallway to access the door controls. And, because the droid had a fairly wicked sense of humour and greatly enjoyed causing Cotan chagrin and annoyance, it opened the door without even bothering to warn the two inside the room.

​

​

Cotan had been sleeping far better than he had for a while.

It was nearly too good, in fact; he'd managed to force his way under the blanket at some point, wrapping his arms around Asha's waist and pulling her in quite close. Or pulling himself quite close to her, it couldn't quite be said which. Either way, he'd been sleeping with his face partially buried in a mess of red hair, with a goofy smile on his face the whole time.

Even then, no amount of comfort could keep him from quickly waking up when he heard his door start to slide open.

He thought, for a moment, that Asha must have gotten up to grab something or go to the refresher; upon opening his eyes and noticing that he was still staring at all of her reddish curls, he knew that wasn't the case. The arm that had fallen asleep due to Asha's resting atop it only corroborated that conclusion. His waking brain thought through the possibilities quickly; he had made sure to expressly lock the door, just to prevent a wayward Padawan from potentially walking in and seeing the pair cuddled up like they were. A Padawan that he could most definitely sense.

Which meant that there was only one culprit that could be blamed.

That droid is getting scrapped the next time I'm on Nar Shaddaa.

Entirely unwilling to get up yet, Cotan's eyes quickly returned to being shut before anybody could notice, and he wrapped his arms somewhat more tightly around Asha.

[member="Asha Hex"] [member="Rhia Kesyk"]

 

[Lief]

Kiss proved very useful, though she did not understand his little beeps. Even so he led the way, guiding her back through the ship to... Cotan's room?

The girl frowned, watching as the astromech busied himself with unlocking the door, and once it slid open she gave the top of his head a gentle little tap. "Thanks, Kiss," she said, gratitude lacing her tone, before she stepped into the darkened room.

It was lit only by the light of the hallway at this point, yet that provided just enough light for her to see through to the bed and the mass of organic life which was resting beneath the blankets.

Far more than could possibly belong to one person.

When she saw the tangle of red, her eyes widened, and she stared for a solid minute, even as Cotan did his best to go back to sleep.

And then, with a voice writhe with uncertainty, the young girl finally spoke up.

"That is against the Jedi Code..." she worried, openly, "Master Cotan!" Memories flooded back to her mind, things the Masters back on Crystalsong had told them, and in her most abrasive tone - and after hurrying to his side of the bed - she was quick to add to those thoughts.

"Master Cotan, you're going to make the Force angry!"

Her lower lip wobbled as genuine concern shot through her.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

It just couldn't be easy.

Cotan could swear he heard his droid's chuckling out in the hallway while the pile of soon-to-be scrap metal rolled off deeper into the ship. He didn't have time to contemplate the various things he could do to Kiss, however, before Rhia ran up beside him and started talking. He sighed. knowing that his enjoyable afternoon spent cuddling with Asha was most definitely over.

He rolled over onto his back, one arm still trapped beneath the sleeping girl next to him. "Rhia, do you remember the name Luke Skywalker from your studies?" he asked gently, though there was a noticeable hint of displeasure in his voice. "How about his entire family? What about the Sunrider family, or the Horn family?" He managed to wiggle his arm out from under Asha, sitting up in the bed.

"They were all families. Full of Jedi." He rubbed at his eyes, trying to wake up faster. "With the Jedi in them getting into relationships all their own. And the Force never cared." He opened his eyes again, looking back down at Rhia. It was very obvious that the Jedi who had first taught and raised her were some of the strictest to have existed since the Great Jedi Purge. Probably the most conservative in the modern era.

"I think I'm going to have to have a talk with those masters back on Crystalsong one of these days, child, because they've been filling your head with all sorts of strange ideas."

[member="Asha Hex"] [member="Rhia Kesyk"]

 

[Lief]

"Of course," she said, "He created the New Jedi Order, and he has a Code named after him." Though that code, she had learned, was not actually from his own mouth. As Cotan pressed on though she hastily shut her mouth, realizing the point wasn't who Master Skywalker was but what had been permitted under his Order.

It was true that Rhia's Masters back on Crystalsong had been strict. Ridiculously so. In fact some even completely forsook the teachings of the New Jedi Order in favour of a much earlier time. The young girl was, soon enough, looking down at her feet, as further realizations washed over her aside from those which Cotan himself was reminding her of.

"Oh..."

Chewing on the inside of her lip, the girl turned rather pale while the tips of her ears burned something fierce. Shame and a pure, base embarrassment washing over any of the other heightened emotions she'd been feeling just moments prior. She looked very briefly to Asha, and then back to the ground.

"I'm sorry, Master," she squeaked, quiet as a mouse, backing up just a couple of steps from the edge of the bed. In her haste to 'set things right' she had quite forgotten tenets of her own, namely those which referred to respecting one's Master. What she had just done in that moment was far from respectful. In fact, it was the most disrespectful thing Rhia had ever done in her entire life.

And she knew it.

"I really am sorry."

Part of her wanted to explain herself, but she knew that making excuses and blaming the guidance of others would only worsen the situation. Nobody had made her storm in on them. That had been her own decision, her own action.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Lief]

For the first time in a long time Asha slept without issue. No nightmares darkened the corners of her dreams, or threatened to drag her down into a lucid abyss, instead she remained in a state of pure rest, so deep in fact that she hardly recalled dreaming at all.

That was until the very end, just before she woke with a start, after Cotan had untangled himself from beneath her and began the accidental process of rousing her. Then all of the demons came out to play, those monsters who played in the back of her mind no matter the hour of the day, no matter if she was waking or sleeping. Aellin, and Nik, and the faceless terror from Nar Shaddaa, each punctuated by the worst storms even Thule had ever seen.

So it was that when Asha finally came to, it was a jolted experience. She almost sat bolt upright, head jerking, yet she managed to push herself back down against the pillow before that became the case. When she saw the girl looming over them, however, she jumped out of her skin.

Holding her chest, right above her racing heart, Asha looked Rhia over yet before she could open her mouth to try and discover what in the world was wrong she caught sight of Cotan's expression from the corner of her eye.

And he did not look impressed.

"What is it?" she asked, finally feeling her heart rate begin to slow, "What happened?"

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan had been about to respond before he noticed Asha stirring next to him. The spike in the woman's emotional state was unmistakable, and Cotan had already reached out by the time she opened her eyes, his fingers brushing through her hair the same way she'd been playing with his earlier. Between Rhia's instantly-contrite demeanour and Asha's frightful waking, Cotan couldn't much maintain the stern look he'd held mere moments ago.

Somebody had to lighten the tension in the room.

"It's alright, Asha," he began, smiling down at her. "Apparently we were making the Force cry, that's all." He still couldn't resist some sarcasm, even if Rhia had taken a complete one-eighty from how she'd busted into the room. He turned, bringing his legs back over the edge of the bed and taking his hand away from Asha's hair. "And don't worry too much, Rhia. You still get good-kid-points, because you at least thought you were doing the right thing." He hopped off the bed, grabbing one of the Zelosian cookbooks off of his desk.

He stretched for a moment, his back popping in a couple spots, before he started on his way out of the room. "Come with me, all of you. It's past time for dinner." He stopped for a moment at the doorway, glancing darkly down the hall in the direction his droid had gone. "And I need that to distract me before I start taking Kiss apart while he's still on."

Grumbling darkly under his breath about 'good-for-nothing droids' and trying to conceal some of his own embarassment at the position he'd been found in, he started quickly down the hall, leaving Rhia and Asha both lagging behind him while he made his way to the galley.

[member="Asha Hex"] [member="Rhia Kesyk"]

 

[Lief]

And then Asha woke up, and the girl felt twice as bad.

Though Cotan poked fun, and obviously meant no harm by it, the girl remained rather sullen with herself. "Was anything they said right?" she mumbled under her breath, after all Cotan had informed her of several things now which had either been made too extreme or which were severely outdated by the Jedi of Crystalsong. Little did she know there were still many things she'd unearth that had been falsely relayed to her, though the most pressing one right then and there was what she was.

Her eyes fell over the cookbook that her Master took up, and she squinted at the cover in order to see what it said. Zelosian? She had so many questions, including what had happened earlier that day, but for now with dinner already late they were ushered out of the room behind Cotan.

Of course, Rhia hurried out ahead of Asha who had yet to crawl out of the bed. While it had been strange to see the two of them asleep like that, Rhia decided it wasn't terrible. Besides... She shouldn't have even really been in Cotan's room. That was his space, the only real private spot he had in the entire ship.

"It wasn't Kiss' fault," she informed Cotan, in all her oblivious innocence, "Please don't take him apart, I asked him to take me to you..."

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Lief]

"Making the Force cry?"

What kind of insane alternative dimension had she woken up in?

"How in the world could you make the Force... cry?"

Clearly she was missing some large part of the conversation, though from the look in Rhia's eyes she decided against pushing for answers too heavily. While Cotan had seemingly relaxed back from his previously frustrated state, the girl remained just as wide-eyed and remorseful.

When Cotan removed his hand from her hair, Asha took it as a sign that nap-time was over. So she sat upright, turned her legs over the side of the bed, and watched as Master and Apprentice walked from the room - Cotan with one of the cookbooks in hand, and Rhia with words dripping from her mouth. Only then did she rise, turning to pull the bedsheet over the bed in some small semblance of tidiness.

She gave herself a few moments to shake the sleep and haze from her mind, before stretching and following them out into the hall. Off to the galley they went, for what would hopefully be a less dramatic meal.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

With Asha being a bit slower to get out of the room, it ended up being Rhia who quickly came after Cotan. "Rhia, that droid knew I locked my door," Cotan grumbled. "And he was laughing at me after he opened it. You might've asked him to find me, but he's the one that decided how you would find me." He waved a hand, not even bothering with the door controls, to force the galley open again. The doors came open a bit more quickly and violently than was otherwise normal.

Even if it was no longer showing on his face, the irritation that Cotan felt could still be noticed via his effects on the environment.

He flipped open the cookbook, thumbing through the pages until he found something that looked good. Looking over the ingredients, however, he couldn't find anything that he had any of. The other recipes were all the same. With a sigh, he set the book down on the counter, before reaching up into his cabinets and starting to pull out flour, pepper, and salt, along with various implements for cooking; if he couldn't use the cookbook, he'd just default to a relatively quick and easy standard. Just down the hall, he could hear Asha's footsteps as she approached.

"Rhia, do you think you could go to the storage and pull out a couple nerf steaks?" he asked the girl. "A few Corellian potatoes too, please." Once she scurried off, he'd turn a bit, looking over at the other person to enter the galley. Who was conveniently very close to where a few other items were stored. "Asha, do you think you can pull out some bread?" he asked before she had a chance to get too far past where he kept it stored. "I've also got some Cenwick leaves in a jar over there, and I'm going to need them."

[member="Asha Hex"] [member="Rhia Kesyk"]

 

[Lief]

______________________________________________________________​

​

Orbiting Tatooine, The Outer Rim Territories // Within The Galley​

Fetching Ingredients // With [member="Cotan Sar'andor"]​

♫ // So Come Out Of Your Cave Walking On Your Hands;​

And See The World Hanging Upside Down​

______________________________________________________________​

The girl said nothing as she hurried off to fetch the requested food from storage.

Truth be told, she had a lot to think about. Pieces to begin connecting together though she did not know the factors which bound them. It was as though she had a thousand pieces to a puzzle, yet only the corners were known for certain. The rest? Well, that was anyone's guess.

Most did not face their first existential crisis at the grand old age of ten. Yet the more she thought on it the more she realized that things were not quite adding up. It was no secret to the girl at this point that she had been lied to, at least to some degree, by those who raised her, and as she recalled the cookbook Cotan had acquired out of nowhere - when usually he cooked without needing such references - Rhia could not help but begin to feel doubts deep inside.

Was this in response to whatever had happened at breakfast?

Was she the Zelosian he was seeking meal ideas for?

By the time that she returned to the galley the child had countless questions burning within her heart, yet she placed the nerf steaks and Corellian potatoes down on the counter top and shuffled into a seat rather than voice them. She felt those same stupid tears prickling at the corner of her eyes as she had experienced in her inebriated state, this time caused by genuine hurt as opposed to superficial pain, and while her Master busied himself with preparing for dinner she could not help but reach out to the cookbook he'd set aside for answers.

Not that it would provide her with much of course. It wasn't an instruction manual on Zelosians, just their cuisine.

Whatever the heck a Zelosian even was.

 

[Lief]

______________________________________________________________​

​

Orbiting Tatooine, The Outer Rim Territories // Within The Galley​

Entering The Galley & Fetching Ingredients // With [member="Cotan Sar'andor"]​

♫ // You Spin Me High, So Watch Me As I Glide​

______________________________________________________________​

​

She walked into the galley to find Cotan already listing off foodstuffs that needed collecting.

Little Rhia hurried past her, a thoughtful expression upon her face that spoke of more than just seeking out nerf steaks, and after taking no more than two steps forward herself she too was asked to gather a thing or two. Which, of course, she most definitely did, gathering them up as she passed by the cabinet holding them. Inside she found the bread, while from on a shelf above the countertop itself she brought down the jar of cenwick leaves.

Both of these things she brought with herself across the room to where he was standing, and while Rhia was still gone from the room she leaned up to kiss the man's left temple in hopes of easing off some of the stress she could see was still wound up within him.

"Everything okay, there?" she whispered, and after giving him time to reply she stepped back, glancing around in search of something she could do. Perhaps she could clean some of the natural dirt from the potatoes? She'd be sure to ask Cotan once Rhia was back in the room, that way they could both tend to anything else he needed. Didn't make sense for Cotan to do all the hard work for dinner if they were both just standing around aimlessly anyway.

As though reading her mind, Rhia stepped back inside the galley yet after depositing the steak and potatoes onto the countertop she scurried off into a seat in the corner of the room. Asha looked to Cotan questioningly, one brow raised, as though expecting he'd know what was up.

Though chances were, he was just as in the dark as she was.

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan turned and returned the kiss on Asha's forehead. "Just getting annoyed at some masters who overly romanticize the pre-purge Jedi training methods," he replied. Soon enough, Rhia was back in the room, wordlessly setting down what Cotan had sent her to grab and finding a seat. Quite odd behaviour for the normally upbeat girl, and even if she was embarassed after waking Cotan up, embarassment like that didn't normally have such an effect on the girl. She'd usually be back to bubbly, cheerful self fairly quickly.

He turned, noticing Rhia starting to read the cookbook, and raised one eyebrow in mild curiosity. Before long, he turned back around, grabbing a pot and starting to fill it with water. "Rhia," he began while he did so, tone entirely unchanged. "I'd also appreciate it if you could go back and grab some onions and garlic too, please." It wouldn't do to have the girl be brooding too much before he had the opportunity to talk to her about things, and he could tell something was quite a bit more different than usual.

So he defaulted to the same strategy he'd noticed used on himself and other apprentices back when he was younger: Keep all the kids running around doing various tasks until whatever was on their mind was off it and they'd be able to think straight again.

When Rhia ended up leaving the room to grab what he'd asked, Cotan turned to Asha, giving her a small wink. "If you could wash those potatoes and set them to boil, I'd appreciate it," he told her, while he started to cut away at the plastic that the nerf steaks were sealed in.

[member="Rhia Kesyk"] [member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

______________________________________________________________​

​

Orbiting Tatooine, The Outer Rim Territories // Within The Galley​

Fetching Ingredients // With [member="Cotan Sar'andor"]​

♫ // So Come Out Of Your Cave Walking On Your Hands;​

And See The World Hanging Upside Down​

______________________________________________________________​

Rhia was abruptly roused from her thoughts.

Looking up she set the cookbook down on the table and shimmied back out of the booth-seat. Still the girl said nothing, though she hurried out of the room back toward the pantry without a fight. It took her a little while longer to unearth the garlic and the onions compared to her last trip.

In fact, she stood in front of the storage area and did what amounted to a full circle of uncertainty.

Snap out of it she told herself, with a swift shake of the head. That, at least, seemed to do something for her, and she spotted the bulb-like vegetables. From there she made quick work of returning to the galley. And again, not having learned her lesson yet, she set them down and made her way right back over to the seating area.

The book was taken up, her eyes glanced down over the page she'd previously been reading, almost entranced. As an afterthought, however, she looked up and across to the two adults. Just making sure there wasn't something else which might interrupt her self-destructive thoughts.

 

[Lief]

______________________________________________________________​

​

Orbiting Tatooine, The Outer Rim Territories // Within The Galley​

Food Prep, Baby! // With [member="Cotan Sar'andor"]​

♫ // You Spin Me High, So Watch Me As I Glide​

______________________________________________________________​

​

"Ah..."

Asha began to put the pieces together then, the girl in the Captain's quarters, Cotan's displeasure, though did that also explain why the kid was acting so strange? She chewed her lip in thought, moving over to the sink with the potatoes and rinsing them off.

When the girl left the room, oddly stoic, Asha turned back to Cotan from her temporary prep-station.

"She'll learn the right of it soon enough," she told him, "See the Galaxy as it really is, rather than how it was when she was isolated to one spot within it."

Still it didn't mean it'd be a road without its bumps.

Cutting the potatoes and setting them into a pot of boiling water, she let out a long sigh and resisted the urge to yawn. Barely. How could she feel more tired now than she had before they took their nap? That didn't make any sense. Any sense at all.

"We should invest in a music player," she said, all at once, though for all she knew there was one already installed in the ship. "Some sort of background music wouldn't go amiss..." Especially given the fact that some sort of tension remained in the air, maybe it would help to break that up.