Private Sun & Moon

[Persephone Dashiell]

Persephone nodded. She wasn't sure if Iko Vel should have came with her to the Three Moon Festival now. He was having a good enough time, he seemed to be relatively happy but perhaps she was pushing too fast. In all reality, she should have maybe just taken Rue instead and made a girls evening out of the event.

"Do you wanna go back home? We can order the food and then I can have Thirty-Seven come an' get you."

She didn't want to push Iko. If he wasn't feeling like himself then he wasn't feeling like himself and there was no sense in trying to be happy for someone else. That wasn't right.

"Don't want you to hafta put a brave face on just for me."

By now they had reached the front where one ordered food. Two sausages on a stick, the sandwich, fries, and some type of fruity drink for the both of them. It looked really good, with chunks of fruit floating along the top.

"I do enjoy yous bein' here though."

 

[Iko Vel]

"Go home where I'll be a miserable mess by myself...or stay here where my girlfriend is able to make me smile...Which one shall I ever choose."

It was a no brainer to Iko. He was enjoying his time out with her. Sure, he still wasn't himself fully but this was the happiest he had been for a while. He wasn't trying to be happy for her, Persephone was actively making him happy and that was something he didn't want to let go of. Nearly everyone else important in his eyes had left him, some willingly, some not-so willingly. And so he just wanted to focus on the here nad now with Persie.

"I enjoy bein' 'ere to. Don't worry. I ain't puttin' on a brave face...but I am puttin' on a hungry one."

With that, Iko went straight for the fruit drink first, though he was less trying to drink it, and more trying to eat at the fruit, swishing the drink about to try and get the fruit to land in his mouth. Yes, he did love meat, but at the same time, Iko was like a trash compactor for any type of food. Fruit, veggies, meat. The only exception came with some baked goods, but even then, there was nothing that wasn't going to stop him from having a feast tonight. After all, some people like to say that eating is a good way to find comfort.


Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Boys.

They hadn't even sat down yet and Iko Vel was busy trying to get the fruit like a hungry little creature. To be fair, she loved fresh fruit too so she couldn't blame him at all. Food in hand, they found an empty table among the crowds in the center of the closed down street. All the lights and lanterns strung up overhead came to life as the sun went down, only the residual light as the last bits of daylight played out.

Persie picked up her deep-fried sausage and gave it a generous dip in all three condiments, eager to finally eat dinner. Also, to finally experience all sorts of festival foods. Ukatis only had apple tarts and various other goods, the village had everything from barbecue to large bubbled waffles filled with fruits and ice cream. She was tempted to try one of those later in the evening.

"I'm glad yous like bein' here. Happy you came with me, otherwise it would be a girls day..uh...night... with Rue. I'm excited ta see the moons align and make our wishes. Oh and experience the festival and be with you too....its real interestin' here. Not like anywheres I've been before....not that I've been a lotta places. Not like you."

 

[Iko Vel]

"Oh...I didn't even think about a wish. And I ain't been to that many...nice places. It's always lessons, lessons, lessons. I went to a beach one time. Made a sandcastle. Put a lotta thought into makin' it. Wanted it to be perfect. It was less of a castle and more of a city if I'm being 'onest. Made a moat and everythin' to keep out the "peasants."

Iko gave a small chuckle at that, as he ate away, chomping and chewing away as he ate like a typical teenage boy. Making a mess all over the place, leaving crumbs there, spilling bits of juice there. The way he saw it, he didn't have to be on his best formal behaviour around Persie. He tried his hardest to be clean around her but when it came to relaxing? He was going to relax as much as he could with Persie.

"When we're older, I'll ask Mr Dashiell if we can go to a proper beach, that won't have ships crashin' on it. Can try to teach you 'ow to swim as well. It's an important skill. So is first aid and that but I don't think you need that...oh. I still needa teach you 'ow to use the knife as well."

He tapped his chin in thought at that. There was going to be a lot of stuff he wanted to do with Persephone. Teach her how to protect herself with the knife, teach her how to swim, dance with her. It was a lot of stuff and he just had to figure out if there was enough time...Not that he had to rush through it all.

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Persie didn't mind that well, Iko Vel was a typical teenage boy. Even she left crumbs but brushed them off her shirt. She typically was worried about being clean in terms of like taking a dirty shirt out of a hamper and wearin' it like nothing at all. That was where she drew a line, that was weird. Eating messy? It was going to happen, especially at a fun outing.

"We can make a sand-city together, I bet it would be fun. Never made sandcastles or sand-cities or anythin' like that."

She had just seen the beach for the first time when she went to Gala. An interestin' sight to see, although she wasn't sure if she wanted to actually swim in the wide open ocean just yet.

"Why we's gotta ask for permission? We're moving to Joiol right on the beach. There's the beach and a swimmin' pool. Wake up an' just walk out there. As for the knife, yeah, ya do 'fore I injure myself. Let's wait til after the weddin'? I don't wanna cut myself and hafta wear big bandages and hear My-rah and Makky moan an' groan the entire time."

 

[Iko Vel]

"It's super fun! I can be in charge of making the stuff, and you can say where stuff goes and what kind of buildings. Are they gonna be square shaped...or triangle shaped. Are they gonna have little windows carved into them..."

With that, Iko went on a small little tangent about different "sand architecture". He had put plenty of thought into all of it as he waved his hands around whilst he talked, replicating the shapes or the actions he'd take to make the sand castles with his fingers or hands, before blinking a little bit at Persie's first question as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"'Cause...I want it to be special. It ain't too special, if we just walk out straight to the beach after waking up. I want it to be a big thing...and yeah! We can totally wait until after the weddin'. I ain't gonna risk getting you 'urt and having Makai and Myra mad at me. I'd be mad at myself if I got you hurt anyway."

Iko waved his hand a little bit at that, before going back to eating as much as he could. Pacing himself at the same time. He had to keep it in the back of his mind that they were gonna try to dance...and being filled with food wasn't going to be too helpful for that.

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Persephone had no idea what sand castle architecture was. Nor had she ever seen a sand castle in person. She assumed it was of a certain shape and it was built on the beach. Beyond that she didn't know a single thing. There would be a HoloNet searches on her end so she didn't look like an idiot.

"Yeah, I can direct."

Which sounded perfect to her. She could lay out in a bikini relaxing while Iko did all grunt work of making the castles. He already seemed excited about the prospect of doing such a thing so who was she to deny him?

"Why does swimming hafta be special? Why don't see what the big deal is? Shouldn't I be learnin' how to do it ina pool? Ocean seems kinda dangerous."

Another bite of her sausage. She didn't want to be eaten by some odd sea creature all for the sake of saying she swam in the ocean. She could just admire from the safety of the beach.

Iko Vel

 

[Iko Vel]

"Oh! I didn't mean you had to learn in the ocean. I just meant...it'd be nice. 'Cause the ocean is natural. A pool is all...man-made. Sure, the ocean is dangerous, but there's beauty in danger as well. A lotta pretty colours in nature means danger. For all I know, you could be dangerous!"

Iko teased at that, gently tapping Persie's nose. He didn't think she was that dangerous at the end of the day. Though he was slowly but surely starting to realise that what he saw as a fun time out at the beach might have been a bit more intimidating to Persephone. That just meant he'd have to work on having fun at a pool instead. A...boring pool with no aquatic life in it.

"I just...I feel like there's a lotta pretty stuff we can see in nature. In woods, in the ocean, in mountains. And I wasn't exactly...a great person to hang about with last time we were at the beach. My leg was all messed up, so we couldn't see as much as we wanted to."

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"I am dangerous"

Was she teasing? Was she serious? Iko Vel would never know. Mama always said to keep 'em guessin' and she planned on making Iko guess frequently. Either way,she flashed a small smile before trying to fish some fruit out of her drink cup, listening to the natural beauty of nature also meant some kind of inherent danger. A city girl, all she could do was nod along and pretend she knew what he was talking about.

"I wanna go back to the beach, I just don't wanna learn how'ta swim in the ocean at first. Yous can swim, I can watch from the sand castle encampment. I think it would be real fun if yous and I got to go walkin' around nature. I plan on doin' some explorin' around the Farm while I'm here. Figured it'd be something to do 'sides bein' cooped up in the house all the time."

An easy entry into nature. The Farm had rivers and caverns and hills and valleys. Plenty of gravel and cobblestone paths to lead her there too.

 

[Iko Vel]

Iko blinked at the fact Persie never clarified if she was joking with Iko. That was something that made him somewhat nervous as he stuttered slightly. Though she flashed a little smile that caused Shan to clam down, as he watched her try to fish the fruit out of her cup, causing Iko to smirk at her, as if he hadn't literally been doing that around five minutes ago. No. Never could have been him. He was totally a neat and tidy eater. It was strange to say the least though, he was talking about all of these blessings about nature but in reality, he had never really seen it that much himself. He never got that much of a chance to explore through the Jedi.

"I don't mind goin' walkin' as long as my leg doesn't give up on me again. It's doin' fine now. I think...Or maybe I've gotten better at dealin' with pain. I mean, I've gotten pretty good at dealin' with pains in the neck. Turns out there's a load of them in the Galaxy at the end of the day. More than I thought there would be."

He broke out into a little cheeky grin at that, shrugging his shoulders afterwards as he went back to devouring the rest of his food, proving his previous thought about him being a neat and tidy eater wrong almost instantly as he was leaving crumbs, here, there and everywhere. Not that it was his problem. He'd just wipe them off when he was getting up.

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Straw fished out a piece of fruit finally, popping a piece into her mouth as she listened to Iko Vel . Her battered deep fried sausage was done, now enjoying the bits of fruit in her cup and the last of the cold drink.

Her eyes narrowed when he mentioned pains in the neck. Her brow furrowed, then turned a cold stare to Iko as she put two and two together with that cheeky grin of his. Granted, it was an adorable little grin and Persephone immediately thought he was cute.

No, focus.

"Iko Vel is yous callin' me a pain in the ass? Sounds that'd be the pot callin' the kettle black!"

She wasn't really offended, but still, Persie had to hold up her own end of who she was. That meant calling Iko out, couldn't let him get away with it..

 

[Iko Vel]

"Hm? A pain in the ass? No. No. Pain in the neck. There's a difference. One is an annoyance. One causes stress. But at the end of the day, the stress you give me is worth it, and you never annoy me...Also whatsa kettle?"

Iko blinked at that. He had never made tea or used a kettle before in his life, so it was just something that didn't make sense to him. Also why would a pot or kettle be black? He tilted his head at that...before shaking his head to snap out of it and kicked Persephone's leg gently to try and snap her out of the whole little argumenative state she might be in.

"But at the end of the day...You're worth any pain Perse. You're dealing with my sorry state, so...thank you at the end of the day. You're amazing...Now am I the kettle calling the pot black still?...or whatever the saying was?"

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"What stress do I be givin' yous?"

More curious then mad at that one, Persephone knew she was a difficult person. It wasn't a secret anyone was hiding. Yet no one ever really told her why. Probably was her entire personality but maybe Iko Vel would give her more insight into what exactly went wrong. Or...maybe not. She did say somethin' about being dangerous and didn't say she was jokin' around.

She didn't know how to say the pot calling the kettle black was an analogy. Iko wasn't even sure what a kettle was and she thought everyone knew what a kettle was. Persephone was a poor street urchin and even she knew what one was. Seemed universal? Maybe the Jedi didn't allow them or something, she wasn't sure.

"You ain't sorry. So stop apologizin'. I hope I ain't causing any pain to yous...if so, well....that wouldn't be good. We'd have to stop seein' one another. 'Cause it won't make a lick of sense otherwise."

 

[Iko Vel]

"It's just...stress that comes with carin' for someone I guess? Before I met you...I didn't REALLY care if someone got 'urt. I knew I should care but...they weren't important to me. You are. You're stubborn as well, but that's somethin' I like about you. You know what you want. And you'll get it."

Iko was an open book, like always. Why would he keep it a secret, if Persie specially asked him to answer it for her? He didn't mean it in a bad way of course. He did really care for Persie, and he didn't want her thinking otherwise...Though there was something she said that didn't make sense to him as he tilted his head towards Persie.

"But...I mean...Isn't a part of dating, dealing with pain? Like...we wouldn't have to stop seein' each other if you were causin' me pain...we'd 'ave to figure out why. And see if we could fix it. Goin' straight to not seeing each other instead of tryin' fix it just...wouldn't make sense to me?...But I dunno. It's like when you find something really good you like to eat but it ain't 'ealthy. You could cut it out of your diet completely...or you could work to make it fit into your diet. And if you were hurting me, which you aren't, I'd work to try and figure out a way to fit you into my die-...Okay. This is sounding weird."

He reached his hand over to take Persie's, giving it a little squeeze to try and reassure her that she wasn't causing him any serious pain. The whole pain in the neck thing was just him trying to tease her but if she didn't actually like it, he was going to stop it then there.

"And erh...sorry self doesn't mean I'm sorry. It means like...I can be a mess sometimes."

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"...I mean, I don't care 'bout anyone gettin' hurt 'cept my family. Y'know, you an' Makky and My-rah and them. Not sure its unusual."

Persephone surmised, as Iko Vel was a Jedi, that he was supposed to care about folks he didn't know. It wasn't an odd concept, but she supposed it was one of service and sacrifice. It wasn't something she could do. She cared a lot for the people she loved, that was it. Other folks? Of course she didn't want anything bad to befall them but at the same time, she didn't know 'em, not much one could do in the end.

You're stubborn as well, but that's somethin' I like about you. You know what you want. And you'll get it."

Persie smiled at that. She was very stubborn and yes, she did get what she wanted. Perhaps not at first but she was persistent, as her two guardians knew very well by now. If she didn't get something she wanted then it was a regroup and new plan of attack. It was just in her nature to continue on, it was how she survived after her Mama had died.

"So's if you's was eatin' something that was giving you catastrophic diarrhea you's still going to find some way to still eat it? You're crazy"

A teasing, amused grin at her analogy of the situation.

 

[Iko Vel]

"It's unusual if I wanted to be a Hero. A Hero wants to help everyone, without being thanked for it but me?...I want to be thanked. I want the respect that comes with saving people."

He sighed at that thought, rubbing the bridge of his nose for a moment before lifting his head up at Persie's comment about eating something, tilting his head. Part of him felt like she hadn't even listened to what he had said before that. Giving her a little smirk afterwards, shaking his head at her ever so slightly.

"Like I said. I'd find a way to get around it. Maybe there's some kind of medicine that lets me eat it. Like imagine if I couldn't eat cheese. That would suck. But there's pills that let people eat cheese...I think...I dunno...I can eat cheese, so I've never checked."

Why did they get onto cheese of all topics? Iko just shook his head at that, returning Persie's grin with his own grin. It was nice at least. It was letting him relax and lose any stress. Just fading away as he relaxed.

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"There's a pill for everything! There's probably a pill for dealin' with me!"

Cheese and catastrophic diarrhea, what a 'date' conversation for them to be having. It was typical teenage style ; both of them wanting to share their thoughts, ideas, and random facts with one another in a haphazard manner. The topics were all over the place and then here they were, speaking on topics and comparing love to a cheese intolerance.

Persie stood up and kissed Iko Vel on the cheek, her own cheeks stained pink at the action when she pilled away.

"Uuhmm...I'ma go get one of those waffles with the fruit. You want one? Or you want a milkshake? Or both? I figure you can relax here and hold our spot since we got a nice table an' all."

 

[Iko Vel]

"But I don't needa pill to deal with you! I like dealin' with you! It's a highlight of my day being with ya!"

Okay. Maybe he was being a bit too defnesive over that. But he didn't want Persie to think that he thought it was a pain to deal with her. He liked it. He liked just throwing random ideas at her. She could understand where his ideas were coming from most of the time which was pretty nice. He finally felt understood at the end of the day. At the little cheek kiss, Iko's face broke out into a bright red at that, looking down at the ground.

"I-I...I'll just take a milkshake...I don't want to eat too much...I don't want to end up being sick when we're dancing. my stomach is already getting pretty full I think..."

Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"Just a milkshake? Okay. I know you'll be hungry in an hour."

Or once they finished dancing. Iko Vel was a bottomless pit, she already knew before the night was up and the wishes were burned that they were going to eat again. Or at least grab something to take on the speeder ride back tot he Farm from a vendor who planned on staying open that late. Either way, she bounded off into a line with dessert vendors, waiting patiently in line. By now the sun was down and it was nothing but lights put up for the festival.

She returned in about five minutes with a grin on her face, a blueberry milkshake in one hand and a bubble waffle cone in another. Both looked amazing and filled with the bounty of early summer, the fruit fresh and at their peak. Persie sat back down across from him and dug into her waffle, having wanting to try one since she saw them on ZikZok. It did not disappoint.

"Miss me?" Another cheesy grin. "D'you want some? More than plenty to share, it's really good."

Arm outstretched, offering.

 

[Iko Vel]

"Nuh uh! Just because I can eat all the time, doesn't mean I'm always hungry!"

Iko pouted at that, feeling somewhat insulted. Of course, he was going to be eating more later but for now he was trying to make usre he wasn't too stuffed. He knew that eating too much would make him feel sick, and if he got too sick, then...well dancing was out of the equation. That was the main thing in his mind.

Though as soon as Persie arrived with the waffle, Iko reached forward to take a small nibble from it. It was...great! Super sweet, but Iko wasn't going to devour it. It was Persie's food technically. But he did take the milkshake and started to practically chug it in one go. Brain Freeze? What was that? Iko had no brain to freeze in the first place. In all seriousness though, he just enjoyed drinking away as much as he could.

"It's fantastic! I love it. We need to get these for the house."

Persephone Dashiell