Strictly Platonic (Mara Merrill)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

Lips still tingling, Mara glanced past Hylo at the nearest Coruscanti officer. "I think they want to get statements from us. Once that's all taken care of...yeah. Yeah, I'd like that. The part of your tower that isn't a crime scene, anyway." Arson, plus attempted murder of poor Edgar -- all kinds of investigation would need to be done, of which Mara had only the faintest conception. She moved in different circles.

Fortunately, these were professionals. Within half an hour, she and Hylo had completed their statements and were underway, back to his garden tower. Mara's speeder touched down outside the yellow-tape cordon.

"All right," she said, closing the door behind her and moving toward the unburned portion of the towertop, "this is going to come off as seriously forward, and it's not meant to be. At least not any more than necessary." She turned back to him and walked backward, touching the lapels of her shell-spider silk business suit. "I need something more comfortable. What you got around for clothes?"

 

[Hylocereus]

Hylo led Mara back to his place around the burnt wreckage of his garden. Every fiber of his being was crying out for him to use plant surge and make it green again. Well not every fiber... the truth was he couldn't take his eyes off Mara but for the briefest moment to consider his garden. "Uh yeah..." Hylo said thinking. The truth was there was his wardrobe and not much else. Damian Starchaser had brought a few samples of various clothing from Chase fashion awhile back and left them in one of the villa's on the rooftop however Hylo was fairly certain those were entirely swimsuits and two dresses. His mind swam with a few quick images of Mara wearing both swimsuits and a slinky dress before coming back to reality. "I have a closet with some things." Hylo extended his hands and measured Mara with them comparing their bodies. His cheeks blushed a bit as he examined curves and he gulped hard. "A few things should be able to fit you."

Turning Hylo found his body stiff and with a deep breath he led Mara to a closet filled with clothes he was keeping in his room. Mara was in his bedroom. No it wasn't like that and there was nothing to be nervous about and yet his heart was beating. Plants festooned the room which was otherwise sparse of decoration or even furniture having a single bed and chair. "Sorry that it isn't your style...." Hylo wore a lot of tight clothes and a lot of revealing clothes. There was however a pair of simple athletic shorts and shirt that Hylo suspected Mara would choose although even then they were a bit on the short side compared to things he'd seen Mara wear... Gulping he sat and waited for a moment before finally realizing what was happening. He turned around back to the girl and started to walk towards the door. "I uh... will let you change. You have the run of the place." Reluctantly Hylo left waiting outside the door....

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

The door closed, leaving Mara alone in Hylo's bedroom. His closet didn't offer much hope. She spent a couple of minutes hunting for something like a bathrobe while she took off her suit. A bathrobe might send a message, but it would cover more than most of Hylo's wardrobe.

No luck. She draped the coat and pants over the back of a chair, then perused the closet again while fiddling with the buttons of her shirt. Sure, she could make his various sheer/tight clothes work for her, but she wasn't in the mood for that kind of getup. The closet, though, just didn't offer what she was after.

Ten minutes later, she emerged from his room in a loose, comfortable, calf-length, strapless dress that might or might not have been one of his clean sheets. She had used the secret arts of womanhood to fold that sheet into a recognizable and functional shape, and was rather proud of herself.

 

[Hylocereus]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

As he waited Hylo began to take off the stuffy suit he was wearing. The Jacket he flung half halfheartedly across a chair nearby as he loosened the tie which soon joined it. Pulling at the collar of his shirt he undid the top two buttons and allowed himself to breath a little easier. Afterwards, content that he couldn't take off his pants as all his clothes were with Mara getting changed, he leaned against the wall.

Hylo stepped away from the wall he was holding up as he heard the door to his room open. Curiosity almost caused him to turn his head quickly, almost started, to see what Mara had chosen to wear, knowing his own own wardrobe however this he was not expecting. Mouth agape Hylo looked her over with a weird lopsided grin. His mouth opened and closed a few times without sound coming out as he struggled to find words.

After finally ceasing his fish impression Hylo gulped and tried to play it off cool asking, "You want to take in a Holofilm?" There was a display in one of the Villa's rooms, well several displays in several rooms. "I got the newest display in front of a rather comfortable couch...." A flower sprouted onto his head it's tiny bud breaking through golden brown locks of hair. Hylo had tried, real hard, to suppress it but as the blower grew pheromones released from his body into the air.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

Mara eyed the flower and grinned. "I'm sure the couch is all kinds of comfortable, but I'm still shaking off your mother's mindwhammy. If I get on a couch with you, I'd rather do it mindwhammyless." She twirled once, makeshift dress flaring out around her knees. Taunting Hylo? Maybe a bit; she could admit that much to herself. She had zero intention of actually sleeping with him anytime soon, but exploring her Zeltron side wasn't the worst thing in the world. Her empathic senses, and their nascent Force-bond, gave her a pretty clear idea of how she was affecting him, and amused satisfaction was her chosen response.

"But a holofilm sounds great, if you've got a spare chair in addition to that comfortable couch. I don't really care what we watch, as long as it's not rom-com, horror, adult comedy, stand-up, anything dumb, or anything boring. Apart from that, I'm good with whatever." She rattled off the list with a straight face, deadpan. Her good humor faded as she remembered - "Oh, and no war films, okay? If that's cool."

 

[Hylocereus]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Gulping Hylo sighed with a mix of relief and disappointment only to be rewarded with a little twirl from Mara. Gulp. He heard the requests and a smile crept over his face. "I got a chair," he said reaching out and grabbing her hand to lead her over to the couch. "You can take the couch, I'll take the chair," Hylo walked across the room and pulled up a chair close, but adjacent not touching... "I got the perfect vid, one of my favorite."

Moving over the unit he set the movie and started to play. It was an adventure film about an archaeologist who tangled with natives and solved riddles and always defeated the bad guy and got the girl. As the vid played however Hylo found himself looking over at Mara, examining her features with side-ward glances and watching every movement she made trying all the while to be subtle. he pulled at his collar undoing another button on his shirt convincing himself it was just a hot coruscanti night...

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

Mara settled onto the couch and curled up with her legs tucked under her. She picked the side of the couch opposite his chair, leaning away from him with one elbow braced on the couch's arm. The opening music started, and in came the protagonist: square-jawed Outer Rim kind of guy, sneaking his way through someone's depiction of a Sith crypt, getting past ingenious traps. She flicked her fingers, and the case settled into her hand. "'Marauders of the Lost Oubliette,'" she said. Apparently it had won awards, or so the back cover declared. Onscreen, the tomb robber had come face to face with some sort of Sith amulet, in the shape of a head, and was trying to defeat some kind of weighted pressure-trigger for an unknown trap. Five minutes ago she'd been hot and bothered and having fun. Now, rather to her surprise, she found herself getting into it.

Annnd here came the traps again, as the tomb robber proved inept. He saw the darts coming, but not the...

Despite herself, she burst out laughing as a ten-ton rock sphere began rolling after him. The darts, the spiked grid, the venomous guardians -- all realistic for a Sith catacomb, right up until that freaking stone ball. The Ball of Sadow. The Left Nut of Nadd. Something like that.

AND THEN - the tomb robber burst out of the crypt and found himself surrounded by double-crossing rivals and irritated, well-armed locals. Back to accuracy, then. Aunt Rave had gone through similar troubles in her Sith days. Mara's eyes tracked the protagonist as he ran for his evac ship, yelling for his pilot to get ready and go. The pilot's actor wouldn't know a good emergency preflight if it sat on him, but she had to admit, the scene worked well.

As the ship took off, Mara settled back into the couch. "I think I'm going to like this one," she said. "Nice choice."

 

[Hylocereus]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

The night was cold, previously on their date they had worn jackets and now as day started to wane in favor of dusk Hylo could feel a chill. It wasn't cold so much as a nusance cool that seemed to blow through the house as a breeze as air vents moved the air around. Hylo waited, and was patient... he really was! But as the movie started to wind up towards its middle point he saw an opportunity. The pheromones had worn off by now he was sure and he had to be assertive. If anything the encounter he had with Mara's ring of courage had taught him that, and so he stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in and walked off towards a nearby closet.

He watched as the hero of the tale met up with his local contact and they talked about the bad guys operations digging for artifacts across the planet. Opening the closer he grabbed a blanket and walked over to the couch sitting next to Mara and wrapping her up to protect her from the chill of the coruscanti night. With a large gulp he leaned in towards her, letting her rest on him as he got under the blanker with her. "I'm glad you're comfortable and enjoying yourself..." he said in hushed voice.

Edgar, the flower, looked rather pleased with himself as he settled into his corner in his pot. He looked over the pair and sent a beaming wave of approval to the both of them indicating his intent to go dormant and allow them some privacy.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

"Mm." Mara shifted against him comfortably, focus still on the holoscreen. She wasn't blind to what he was doing, or feeling for that matter, but this film -- how could she have not seen this before? She fiddled with the case, caught a line on the back cover, and felt her eyebrows rise. "Wait, this has sequels? Sith Temple of Doom? The Last Mandalorian Crusade? Better believe I'm enjoying myself." She set the cover aside and tucked the edge of the blanket under her chin.

Now Sith Empire operatives had tracked the adventurer to a cantina run by his ex. Lots of drama there, lots of angst, hints of backstory, a girl who'd maybe been too young and naive once upon a time, an adventurer who'd played too fast and loose with her heart...

She had long experience in hiding her thoughts and feelings, from friends and empaths who knew her much better than Hylo did. Despite their nascent Force-bond, it didn't take much work for her to keep some emotional privacy without being obvious about it. She could ponder, for example, just how childlike or, at most, adolescent he was in some important ways. How hurt he would be if she played fast and loose with the connection they'd forged. Or if she told him about hanging out with Mani, the muscular Valkyri warrior, or the dress she'd worn for Micah Talith...

Fire.

She'd been conscious of bitter ash in the air, even this long after the arson. Now, though, as holo-Sith set holo-flame to a holo-cantina, the stink of char filled her nostrils. The cool night air bit through the blanket, the sheet-slash-dress, her skin. She was on her feet before she knew what she was doing, blanket discarded and emotional shielding compromised. So much for expertise.

"Give me a minute," she said, and her voice sounded distant, hollow, to her ears. This wasn't how this moment was supposed to be going. She was supposed to be cuddling with Hylo, thinking young-person thoughts, enjoying herself in relief for the narrow escape they'd had earlier.

She found herself on a balcony a room or two away, with no memory of the handful of seconds it had taken to come out here. Cold wind like Ilum: fire like Mandalorian flamethrowers: treasure-hunters like pillaging raiders. Fire and blood and armed Jedi kids trying to be brave. She fumbled for her courage-ring, but she'd left it in the pocket of her suit, back in Hylo's bedroom.

Feth. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

 

[Hylocereus]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Contrary to popular belief Hylo wasn't an idiot. Perhaps a bit too naive for his own good, but not stupid. That being said even an idiot would have known something was wrong as Mara stepped up and walked out to the balcony. Add to the obvious a nascent force bond, and emphathic powers, and Hylo was suddenly feeling the waves of depression and frantic escapism practically oozing from Mara. Turning to the holovid answered most of his questions, and he turned the volume down so that the pair wouldn't have to hear the crackling of flame. He should have choosen a kids movie. Perhaps the one about the pampered mouse who got flushed down a coruscant drain and ended up with a colony of his people.

With a bit of a sigh to himself Hylo stood up and made his way to Mara. As her mind raced so did his. He had no experience in consoling people. Hell the truth was while he had friends most were older in varying senses of the word and he had precious few ocasions to comfort any of them, nor be comforted. For him life had always been lackadaisical despite how he was raised, or rather how he wasn't.

As he approached the room where Mara was something else came to his mind. There was a treasure room of sorts which Hylo had collected all the things that mattered to him. Inside wasn't jewels, precious stones, or money. Inside was something more precious to him than any of those things, memories. Inside he found some of his favorite items and then hovered over one in particular smiling a melancholic smile.

Taking a deep breath he walked into the room and saw Mara on the balcony. He deposited his items on a nightstand before walking forward and wrapping his arms around her as they overlooked the cityscape below. "I have a plastic flower," Hylo said depositing the decorative motif in front of Mara. It had no scent, nor vibrancy like one of his own creations, his own friends, and yet... "It will never die."

Turning himself and Mara they overlooked the table of treasures. "I have a great big sea shell. If you put it your ear, you can hear the ocean. It's like you're really there." Then he looked down at a bottle with some cheap gemstones stones in it. They shined and amplified the ligth creating prismatic patterns on the glass of the jar they were placed in. "And I've got a glass of fire stones. They make amazing light." A deep breath left his lips. "I'll give you all I've got to give," Hylo said turning and facing her in the eye. "So you don't need to cry. I just want to stay beside you, you're the only treasure I need."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"] was being sweet and dopey and young and committing too far for her comfort. She couldn't really blame him for any of it: they had a bond now, she was fragile, he was catching the edges of her post-traumatic stress, and he'd just had his house burned down yesterday. Anyone would be on edge, feel fragile, cling to certainty or whatever looked like it. Even if a young person's affections were the second most uncertain things in the 'verse, right behind the quality of One Sith alchemy.

Mom would have been able to distill all that down to a handful of perfectly chosen words. Mara wasn't Mom.

"Thanks, Hylo," she said. The wind made her bare shoulders prickle with goosebumps. She wasn't about to patronize him by applying the attitudes of a freighter captain and a Kilian Lord to his treasures. He could see layers of meaning in them that she couldn't, and they spoke volumes about his priorities -- priorities that might, in their simplicity, have innate value. In a way, his simple form of life was comparable to the mental exercise of feeding your thoughts and distractions to a candleflame. Burn it all down to the essence, find what's valuable.

Didn't mean she was going to be his girlfriend here and now. Didn't mean she was going to jump the kid with the plastic flower. But it did mean there was a good bit more to his sillier moments than met the eye.

"I'm better now. Got a handle on it. Can we finish the show?"

 

[Hylocereus]

With his treasures on display Hylo felt more exposed than usual. He knew that most people would consider his treasures trash. Most people, not Mara. Such was his hope and although the girl had no interest in his treasure the sentiment was appreciated. More importantly, she didn't laugh. [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] didn't outright reject him. That was a good sign right? "Yeah, we got two more movies after this one afterall." Hylo started walking back to the couch passing Mara. "And I could think of worse things to do than snuggling on a couch with a cute girl."

The youth was thankful that his back was turned to Mara as his cheeks were blushed green and with a goofy little grin on it. He was sure he looked absolutely foolish and yet he was certain that he didn't care. There was more important things right now. More important to him. Through the nascent force bond that had formed between himself and Mara he knew she was feeling better. That's what was important, Mara was important. Moving over to the cough Hylo pulled the blanket off and made room for Mara sitting down and preparing to put the blanket over the both of them. The thought of what he was doing caused the little blossom on his head to start to bloom into a happy yellow flower with decorative blue eyes.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

She settled back onto the couch with Hylo, the blanket, and the holovid. This time she found she couldn't be tense, that she didn't have a choice. She felt like a marionette with its strings cut, halfway between relaxation and depression. On balance, it felt nice. The film played out, the fire left the screen, and the adventure continued. For a seductive moment she felt normal. A holovid, a guy, a nice night after a bizarre couple of days. She fiddled with the courage-ring, but didn't bother taking it off. It only worked when you were determined to be brave, and this moment didn't call for bravery. Not unless she wanted to get a whole lot more familiar with Hylo, and though some industrial-grade distraction would have been nice a few minutes ago, she wasn't in the mood just now.

"I think I missed something," she said eventually. "He's after the Ark of the Jedi Covenant, I get that, but..." She'd shifted against Hylo; now something blue-and-yellow in his hair caught her eye. Something blossomed in her in response: a sense of mischief. She shifted against him again. "It seems like everything's happening without or despite his involvement. Is this film about destiny, predestination? Action through inaction? I'm not sure I..."

In one swift motion she picked the flower and popped it into her mouth, chewing furiously.

"...get it."

 

[Hylocereus]

"Ouch," Hylo said as Mara pulled the budding flower from his head. He'd forgotten it was there, how embarassing. Boys weren't supposed to have flowers in their hair. Supressing a groan he looked over as [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] continued her thought and-

Hylo's eyes widened and he looked at Mara. Did she just... He stared at the girl as she chewed his flower. That was... it just.. it wasn't done. You don't eat someones flower. Hylo gulped hard as he looked at the girl. "How would you like it if I ate part of you..." His face turned bright green as he spoke the words. It wasn't a mild green showing through skin of a normal blush but a green of a thousand shrubs. Still he kept up his little game and approached. "Your nose looks particularly delicious," he said leaning in and counter noming the girl right on her nose!

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"]

"Gwah!"

Swatting at him, she shoved herself back against the arm of the couch and laughed. "Alright, alright, point taken. No more biting your stem off." She snagged one of the couch's pillows and swatted him again. Another laugh escaped her; she stood and tossed the pillow at him.

She felt like she should say something else, but didn't know what, just stood there in her sheet-slash-dress with Marauders of the Lost Oubliette playing the background. She toyed with the edge of a fold.

"I should..." She licked her lips nervously. Behind her, Korriban Jones or whatever rammed one speeder into another one, in search of the Ark of the Jedi Covenant. "I should get..."

If you escalate, said a calm voice that wasn't exactly a voice, escalate on your own terms, not because it's late and you're fired up and alone and feeling vulnerable.

"...I should get going. Can I see you tomorrow?"