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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 16:44:11 GMT -6
Eyelet had gotten very used to double takes and ignored it. "I think I'll add some. But I should taste it first to see if I like it." She watched the water steadily turn brown, a swirl coming out of the small bag. "How do you know when it's done?" It looks like it was a dark drink, but how dark did it get? Was it supposed to be dark like coffee. "Does it taste like coffee? I've had that. I don't like it." It was very bitter. She liked some of the drinks that could be made with it, but coffee itself was very bitter.
This was going to be interesting to try. She liked trying new things and Terra, even in a prison that they couldn't easily leave, was full of new experiences.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 4, 2020 17:01:05 GMT -6
"Oh, it's quite different from coffee," said the old woman, "though again, it depends on the particular type of tea." She kept her hand wrapped around one of the cups, letting the warmth pass through to her palm, as she leaned against the counter space. She'd always had more trouble with simply standing than she did with walking or moving about. "Each tea steeps for a different amount of time. This one is best at about four minutes, which means another three for us to wait." The peppermint, which Aerilyn had thankfully brought, was her favorite, but the black tea would help her manage hunger from lack of sufficient food. "You haven't quite figured out the color or the collar," said Drulović, nodding at Eyelet's approximation of the uniform.
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 17:05:04 GMT -6
"Oh. Thanks!" She adjusted the color of her collar slightly. "They eventually agreed to just letting us shift our traveler uniforms. We don't have the same taboos on nudity that you do, so there were a few incidents before they agreed." It wasn't their fault the uniforms didn't shift with them. When they absolutely had to stay in human shape the entire time, they wore the provided uniforms. Otherwise, they shifted their clothes like sane people did. "Apparently not even thick fur counts as clothing, even when nothing is visible. It was very weird." She didn't understand it at all. But terrans seemed to be very touchy about nudity. No where near as touchy as Belkan apparently were, but she had never actually met a belkan before, even if they were in the same empire.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 4, 2020 17:24:42 GMT -6
"I suppose it's simply a cultural difference," said Drulović, shrugging. "I've had to follow others' customs when on their land, too. It's a natural part of things, if uncomfortable." She remembered the clothing she'd been provided while on Niihama, how utterly ridiculous she thought she looked. But of course, she'd had no say in the matter. The old woman eyed the steeping tea with apparent suspicion. Nothing here tasted particularly bad, but it also didn't taste particularly good either. Mediocrity seemed to be the general state of affairs. "Not all Terrans are human, however, though it seems few truly understand that, though the information is readily available. It's really only the humans among us who have those particular qualms."
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 17:28:55 GMT -6
"There are many humans." Eyelet declared. "So many that the planet is mostly human." They were interesting. "Did you ever wonder though, why so many nations in the galaxy look basically human?" Eyelet definitely did. Belkans and Scatterrans and Aschen and Taiyou could all blend together and everyone would simply think they were human. They all looked human enough after all. Maybe it was something about Terra that attracted them. Who knew? Eyelet certainly didn't.
"Why are you looking at the tea like that? Is it doing something wrong?" Was something wrong with it? It smelled funny but that was all Eyelet could tell.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 4, 2020 17:34:24 GMT -6
"There are plenty of origin stories about where humans and human-like beings had our beginnings," said the old woman. "I've heard others from across the galaxy speak of ancient roots on Terra or similar planets. But I suspect most of those stories are wishful mythologies and vain whisperings. We're a hardscrabble people with haphazard and only recent access to spacefaring technologies in the grand scheme of things. I doubt we seeded the galaxy in that way. Others, I suppose, believe that what gods may exist scattered us all like seeds in the fields, landing where we might. I can't say I can fully discount that one." She sniffed. "The tea is fine - but that's just the trouble. Things here are only fine." She turned her face toward Eyelet. "It's ready now, I believe. If you wouldn't mind carrying the cups over to the table there." She nodded to indicate the closest table to them.
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 17:39:47 GMT -6
Eyelet picked up both cups carefully. They were warm, but not too hot. She carried them over the table and sat one down on the side closest to Arianne and the other on the opposite side, which she took. "I think only fine is about what we can expect. You have friends though. They can send you nicer things." Eyelet suggested. "Like our friend can send us better foods." Her friend could too. And that was a good thing, she decided, even if it was all a little insane having to depend on people not even there to get things that shouldn't be that complicated to provide. She sniffed her cup of tea curious and took a sip. Wrinkling her nose, she put it down. "It's still very hot." She couldn't taste anything over that.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 4, 2020 19:51:29 GMT -6
"Of course it's hot, Eyelet," said Drulović, one eyebrow raising slightly. "The water was boiling when I poured it in. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait." She made her way from the counter to the table, easing her way into the proffered chair, and leaned her cane against the table. There were four tables inside the common room at the center of the pod, and at least two were unoccupied at any given time except at meals. The old woman always chose an empty one. She lay her left arm over her lap, and then folded her fingers around the hot cup of tea, smiling a bit at the warmth. She sipped gingerly at it, buoyed by it. "What will you ask your friends to send you while you remain here? You won't be missing much, I'd think."
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 19:57:21 GMT -6
"Better food. Maybe some terran foods. I like trying new things. Soft things for my nest." Soft things for her nest was very important. She fully intended on having more blankets and pillows for her nest, if she was going to be here for ten whole years. "I don't know what else. My implants still work so there's plenty to do. Maybe a screen so I can see things instead of how I process it without a screen." Surely they wouldn't protest some electronics. "Are we allowed those? Do you know?" It was a tablet really. She could see them not being allowed tablets though, just to be ornery. They seemed to think that a life without any pleasures would reform them.
Currently, Eyelet would certainly kidnap Arianne again. She just wouldn't get caught this time. There was definitely a difference. They would leave sooner.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 4, 2020 20:11:55 GMT -6
"Not officially, no," said Drulović, blandly and with a shrug. "It's a security concern. I'm afraid we're not permitted our own phones or computers at all. Of course, I much prefer an old fashioned letter anyway, so it's little trouble to me." The old woman was notorious for her handwritten notes - slipped into a flower vase, a pizza box, beneath a park bench, folded in a napkin, anywhere but on a screen. Sent to enemies and friends alike. She'd even turn up at the doorstep if it was serious enough. Drulović sipped at the tea, watching Eyelet intently. "You might wish to try yours now," she said. "But tell me. Where are the rest of your crew now? Your brother? Why have you alone sought me out here?"
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Post by demikara on Oct 5, 2020 9:57:34 GMT -6
Eyelet sipped her tea, wrinkled her nose, then sipped it again. "It's alright. Definitely needs some sugar, but it's alright." She didn't much like it, but maybe she would after a few more sips. It was definitely interesting at least, and it was something new. "And they are probably back in the unit relaxing. We do a lot of relaxing here. It's very boring. And I came to see you because you are interesting." Eyelet had determined this to be true, and so it must be just that.
"I think you are probably the oldest person here, you know. But there are many units so I could be wrong." It made her interesting for sure.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 5, 2020 10:27:29 GMT -6
"There's sugar in that top drawer," said Drulović, nodding toward the drawer where she'd gotten the teabags. "Ms. Kwak brings a few sundries by about once a month for each unit. I think I drink the tea a bit more than most do. It's on the whole quite mediocre." She watched the others for a few moments - gathered where they were at other tables, playing cards, snacking on something they'd heated up in the microwave that smelled more like sodium than anything else. "Mr. Lebrun is here, too, in another unit, though he's not quite of an age with me. He ought to be at home. Dr. Krstevska certainly does not have the resources to care for Mr. Lebrun as he requires." The former NPA director had infamously suffered a stroke after he and the old woman had been crucified alive by a Tauron organized crime boss in retaliation for a series of prosecutions.
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Post by demikara on Oct 5, 2020 10:30:44 GMT -6
"You should be at home too then. For the same reasons." The prison certainly wasn't put together for someone who struggled to move like she did. "I don't know why you were eager to return here. This isn't your home either." It certainly wasn't anyone's home, regardless of who lived here. It was very annoying that they had to be here at all, though she was pretty certain Berry planned on sending some toys and games for them to play with, as something to do at least.
She added some sugar, tasted it, then added a bit more and decided it was good enough. She wanted their sweeteners. They tasted better.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 5, 2020 10:41:20 GMT -6
"You mistake my desire to return for a desire for this destination, Eyelet. I wasn't eager to return here, so much as I was eager to return to my homeworld," said Drulović. She sipped at her tea, idly watching as others passed through, moving from the common room to the yard and back. "I may not have a house anymore - and I haven't, not in quite a long time, really - but I'll never lose nor forsake my home. I've sacrificed far too much for it - for her." She remembered the elegantly worn stone and creeping vines on the house she once shared with someone she thought she'd loved. She had loved him. She remembered the country ranch house. The tiny farmhouse. The walk-up condo with two narrow bedrooms. The dimly lit studio that was almost too obviously a safe house, a cover. The easily deconstructed and reconstructed lean-to in the rainforest, beneath the jungle canopy. The rental, never really furnished, her icons lying in boxes by the bed, not even a couch to liven up the space. These homes were long since lost. The old woman nodded at Eyelet's tea. "Tell me. What do you make of it?"
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Post by demikara on Oct 5, 2020 10:49:52 GMT -6
"It's bitter, on it's own. The sugar makes it less bitter." She decided and took another sip, slowly tasting it. "I don't know how to describe it. We don't have this flavor." It was an interesting flavor. A little bitter, but the sugar counteracted that well. She sipped it again. "I don't think I'd seek it out, but I don't mind drinking it with you." It wasn't bad, necessarily, but it wasn't her thing at all. It was better than coffee at least, and she could appreciate that for sure.
"I miss the ship already. I suppose it's similar." The ship was her home as far as she was concerned. Most of the crew felt the same way. They had barracks to stay in on Kishe-ah-trii, but for the most part once you were assigned a ship, you stayed on the ship.
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