Not Sure It Is Wise They Meet Part 1

Posted on Sat Feb 18th, 2023 @ 8:11am by Indigo (*) & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya
Edited on on Sat Feb 18th, 2023 @ 8:59pm

Mission: Mission 16: Hysperia
Location: Hysperia
Timeline: Fourth Day of Festival (MD08)
2516 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

Kali turned the jewelry over in her hand again, studying the collection of bejeweled earrings and bracelets she'd selected, and finally handed it over to the market stall vendor with a smile and a nod, along with a whopping five small stuffed dragon figures. "I'll take these."

Indigo was considering what to buy seeing she was pretty sure that Kaylin was never going to let them ever come near the place ever again. It was too chaotic for the woman whilst Indigo was absolutely thriving in the chaos but despite that, she stood out like a sore thumb due to her hair colouring. “Those are nice pieces” The woman spoke up seeing the older-looking woman looking at what she was purchasing.

"I have three little sisters and two younger cousins." Kali flushed slightly olive at being caught buying a boatload of stuffed dragons like she was still a kid, as she handed over some of the local currency and put them into the bag. Ieliene would probably adore the woman's hair for that matter - the purple streaks in her teen sister's own hair had been a point of definite disagreement with their parents, Kali knew; though this woman looked maybe just old enough that she probably hadn't had to ask permission from hers. "These ones are for me, though." She grinned and started putting the jewelry she'd gotten for herself in a different, smaller bag.

"I was considering this..." She held up an intricate choker-style piece of jewellery. It was not big but would look beautiful around Indigo's neck with a basic dress. It reminded her of something her mother had once upon a time that she had sold when things had gotten a list desperate when they had moved to Freecloud to hide from Equinox Industries.

Kali considered the item the woman was holding up, versus her coloring, hair, and frame. "Nice. I'd see if they have earrings to match it. Otherwise you might be able to find someone to commission some from, but that'll probably cost more."

"Not overly an earring type of person but I have tickets for the masquerade ball." It was not something she normally did but she was thinking that something like that was more of an up-market event. Her dress was pure black in a corset style so the choker-type necklace was perfect. "I am not normally a dress-up type of person in the slightest but for the ball I hear you have to dress up."

"You do my lady." The man behind the counter assured.

"You have shoes yet, then?" Kali mostly hung out the last few years in places decidedly not gown-worthy; but she'd done a few stints in fancier locales, like the Space Titanic Holoworld for that matter; and had learned enough about such things and gathered a variety of appropriate attire here and there as a result.

“Shoes?” The woman repeated looking down at her combat boots and shook her head. “Um… no. I am not very good at this girly girl thing have not been in a very long time. I had considered selling my ticket I have been forced to adjust my expectations by my friends.” It was more they had told her to go as it was something that she needed to experience.

"I think there's a cobbler over there." Kali jerked her thumb and chin towards the left, where a row of shops was on the edge of the market stall area. "Take it you aren't a local here, either?"

“I might see if Kaylin has some first.” The young looking woman answered with a smile as she handed over some credits for her necklace and popped it inside her leather necklace.

Kali's left eyebrow climbed slightly in surprise; because Kaylin was a Romulan name and there weren't that many Romulans here, making it highly likely the woman was referencing the exact same Kaylin she had met earlier. "Oh; you know Kaylin?" Kali tested the waters to suss out the accuracy of her hypothesis or not.

Indigo turned and looked at the woman properly. She looked her up and down for a moment before sighing. “Gregnol’s crew.” She surmised with a smile. It was not hard to see now that she looked at the woman overly. “Indigo.” She introduced herself holding out a hand to the woman in a human gesture even though it was quite obvious neither was human.

"Oh, the other Ranger!" Kali smiled, and with the deftness of someone used to handling them, reached out her own hand...and very deliberately overshot the offered hand ever so slightly to make contact with a light clasp on the wrist for the ensuing shake, rather than palm-to-palm. "I'm Kali."

Indigo made a shh sound but took the other woman’s wrist in the same gesture. She nodded to Kalahaeia once to confirm that she was one of the rangers in the area before letting go of the wrist. Yes, she was one of the other Rangers but there were quite a few of them now. “Ah am I the only one you’ve not met yet?” she wondered glancing back to the reader who was ignoring them now in favour of new customers.

"I think so. You weren't at the meeting at the beer garden place the other day the captain and I went to. Figured I'd look you up later." Kali shrugged.

“No I had b… other things to do.” Indigo was happy to be a team player but she needed some time to herself. “So what do you think of my friends?” She wondered smiling. She knew exactly what they were like having spent years with some of them whilst others not so much. It was always good to find out new peoples opinions.

"Well. By some standards, I've not had nearly enough exposure yet to think much of anything in any direction." Kali flicked the tip of one pointed ear. "But it probably went about as well as I could have realistically asked, all things considered. I'm usually kind of an...acquired taste...for Romulans and humans alike." Kali's grin faded into a weary sigh and another shrug.

Indigo couldn’t help but laugh at the comment around acquired taste. She was very much in a similar situation being an acquired taste, but it was not something that many people knew, and even less people were allowed to know. It was what kept her out of Starfleet and gave her a lot more free rein in the universe by most standards. “Being an acquired taste is okay. I quite like an acquired taste.”

"Suppose it has its uses sometimes yeah. But being one of a kind - or these days more like 'first of a kind' - " There were after all, Kali thought, now thousands of little Romulan kids scattered growing up throughout Federation space who had been born there in the last twelve years, or if they hadn't been, had been so young on arrival that they practically had been: Someday, they would be...well, they wouldn't be just like her; because they wouldn't face that alone like she had. But they'd be...something like her someday, she guessed. " - is way less romantic than most people seem to think it is most of the time. Balls, though, those can be romantic sometimes."

Suddenly, as if realizing how this last phrasing could by some people be misconstrued - Divash would definitely have made a comment, for one - Kali flushed dusky olive even deeper than earlier, and quickly clarified. "Uhh. Masquarade balls that is; not the kind of balls that you kick people in when they tick you off."

“Either is fine in my opinion.” The blue haired woman said with a wicked grin on her face. Indigo could have said more about being one of a kind but that was have raised a lot of conversations about her and she would rather not go down that path. She had spent a long time creating an illusion of mystique and confusion with how young she looked vs her experience.

Kali snickered at this. "You'd probably like an old fleet buddy of mine. She'd definitely agree, and probably prefer they be combined in fact. Though, not sure this place would survive her; I'm betting people here are having a hard enough time handling Beya."

“She is certainly living her best life from what I have seen,” Indigo commented thinking on her preferences and she could only snicker and agree back. “This place is not nearly at archaic as it seems though. They just have some traditions that they are not used to being challenged.”

"Though; some that I could totally get into." Kali grinned and fingered the sword she was wearing at the moment.

Indigo just nodded and smiled. She had her own weapons but no everything one needed to know that even with being friends of sorts. "Me too." It was no quite frowned on here as it was viewed as civic duty but Freecloud saw it slightly different in defence of the planet.

"Technically it's not exactly...polite...historically speaking - " Kali flicked the tip one pointed ear again by way of indicating exactly by whose rules and history she meant " - to wander around like this on a daily basis this openly. Concealed carry is polite. And pretty much universal." Kali grinned again in a rather fiercer mode, but did not, in an interesting contrast to enjoying the Hysperian weaponry she had showed off, point out or share exactly what or where she was carrying anything else; leaving the impression she perhaps saw the Hysperian items as a fun game, and the ones she kept hidden as deadly serious. "Open carry, outside of where required by job or duty that is, or maybe a little smaller piece here and there, is a signal that you expect a fight, or an aggressive attempt to let people know you're prepared for one in the hopes they might think twice." She shrugged. "You see in a lot more now in a lot of the disputed areas of space and such because, well, the rules of 'civilized society' don't apply so much when civilization has kinda fallen or is falling apart. But still, damn are these fun to play with when I get the chance like this." She fingered the sword again briefly, then reached over to shove one of the five stuffed dragons back down into the tote bag where it had been starting to pop out of the overstuffed bag as if it were plotting its escape. "Not that I wouldn't find it even more fun to play with flying around on a dragon all day; but outside the heavily regulated tourist stuff, sadly not available." Kali flicked her long fishtail braid back over one shoulder. "You gotten the chance to take the tourist-trap dragon ride yet?"

After only living with Romulans and Remans for two years she was very aware of what was considered polite or not polite. It had been a culture shock for them all to expand on the expectations. “I have not. I feel like I might be let down by the concept. I always love Anne McCaffrey’s books and wanted to be a dragon rider but…” she shrugged it away. It was hard to explain how much she felt she would be spoiled the rest of her life if she followed through on the dreams that young Indigo wanted to be when she thought Pern was out there.

"Yeah probably a good idea neither of us found this place as teenagers, maybe - pretty sure I scared the hell out of the dude running the ride I took. He did the usual 'make a few little sudden dives to thrill or scare the tourists' thing; and I kept urging him to do some real dives." Kali laughed. "I was a fighter pilot in the Dominion War; I'd love to be a dragon rider. Unfortunately, even the smaller breeds would be a bad idea on a ship, with the fire-breathing and all. Otherwise I'd get one of the small ones and teach it to ride on my shoulder. Though, if you want a souvenir of sorts at least, I did find this place where you can get your photos taken with dragons."

“I am pretty sure your captain has banned, any type of dragon on board your ship. Supposedly used to serve with someone who was allowed to keep one as an pet and just kept it on their shoulder going around the ship.” Indigo could not think of anything as annoying as someone having something like that constantly following you around. It would only annoy others if the thing took offense to other crew members.

"Oh, he definitely banned them - I've kinda had an unofficial betting pool going on how many morons will try it anyways. So far the answer is 'eight', though a couple of them only had what they thought were real eggs." Kali nodded at the first bit of Indigo's statement; but then burst out laughing at the last part. "Oh, I hadn't heard that part. There's got to be a story there."

Indigo smiled and nodded. She was very sure there was a story there but she was not pressing the subject with the man. "Coffee? We should get out of the mid-day sun." She asked thinking they stood there just talking and could be done having a coffee or cocktail somewhere else out of the growing heat. It would be nice if she was not wearing a leather jacket.

"Sure." If anything, Kali had been hoping that mid-day sun would be good to be out in by warming the place up a bit more; but she hadn't ever turned down coffee in her life and wasn't about to start now. "There's a place nearby that I've heard roasts their coffee beans in dragonfire; we should definitely try that!"

“Fire roast coffee. Now that is a completely new take on the universes best beverage.” It was nice that it was was on offer and exactly what she had been thinking on after trying to find something to wear and some items to accompany the clothes with in accessories. Is that what people did after shopping with other people?

"Yeah; hoping they sell bags of beans to go, too, along with cups to drink - need to get a bag or two for a family friend who's even more of a caffeine addict than me." Once again one of the five stuffed dragons was starting to pop up out over the top of Kali's tote bag, and she glanced at it ruefully for a moment. "...and maybe a bigger tote, after that."