Erinyes

[Q. Samus Dage]

"Well, would you care to guess where she put it?"

Another furtive look to make sure that Rai'faani was engaged with whatever bauble had caught her eye. Finally his grin returned, though this time it was a bit crooked.

"I'll give you a hint; it wasn't the in the pocket that I just pulled it from."

[Q. Samus Dage]

Well. She was taking it much better than he'd thought she would, and Samus blew out a breath from the side of his mouth.

He straightened back up to his full height, and returned the slip to his pocket.

"I did tell her I had a ladyfriend, but I didn't tell her it was you."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa half-grinned at Samus' lack of full disclosure.

"Well that prrobabljy won't sstop herr. Sshe'd jusst ssee that asss confirrmatjion of herr good tasste jin conquesstss."

The K'ohta'rrou's smaller hands found Dage's larger ones and laced fingers between fingers.

"We do thjingss djifferrentljy, jI thjink. Ourr peopless. Forr Cizerack, one man and one woman togetherr arre marrked bjy a kaa'rri. Wjithout that, who makess love to who jiss rrarreljy fussed overr. But what we ssharre jiss morre. jI thjink we'll be defjinjing exactljy what that jiss morre often than prrecedent forr ejitherr of ourr experrjiencess."

[Q. Samus Dage]

Her fingers twined with his was interesting; made even more interesting by the words that she spoke. Whatever it was that they had right now was not exactly what he'd considered. At the beginning he'd been looking for a little bit of fun, and for something outside of his normal routine. But, to her credit, T'yeellaa Meorrrei had suitably taken his interest. For however long this... whatever it was, lasted, he still tended to lean toward fidelity.

He gave her hand a squeeze, and flashed a smile while leaning down to deliver a kiss to her forehead.

"I've only got time for one woman, Kitten."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

One.

The word left T'yeellaa in deep introspection. She glanced up to meet his eyes, but averted down momentarily to his chest. Dage was her one man. Not out of a decision for exclusivity, but because she'd scarcely had enough time for even one. By some miracle they'd aligned free time for several romantic meetings, but who was to say how long that would last?

"Ssamuss, jit won't hurrt mjy feeljingss one bjit jif jyou ssharre anotherr woman'ss bed. Asss long asss jit'ss not motherr'ss."

[Q. Samus Dage]

At that he frowned. She wasn't understanding.

"T'yeellaa," the transition to using her name instead of the normal 'Kitten' was joined with a slightly more serious rumble to his voice.

"I've been around the galaxy for a good amount of time. I've seen a lot and done a lot. Maybe if I was younger and still floating from planet to planet in stolen Imperial freighters, not knowing if I'd make it out of the trenches, I'd consider something like what you're talking about. But I'm not that man anymore. I grew up and got older. I'm no longer in such dire straights or expecting to meet the Maker in the next skirmish."

A quick glance up showed Rai'fa on her way back, yet another bag in hand. 'We'll talk later' was the unspoken look in his eyes as he looked back down to his companion.

And with a clap to T'yeellaa's shoulder, the seriousness of his features melted away into a smile as the younger Meorrrei approached.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"Herre."

Rai'faani breezily passed off a small paper gift bag to the unexpecting human, giving him a cursory glance as she did so.

"jIthorrjian ssjilk. jI guesssed jyourr ssjize. Rrecejipt'ss jin the bag."

The younger Meorrrei cast a quick, tooth-barbed grin back at her sister before returning her attention to Dage. She raised a slender wrist just below his nose.

"Ssmell thjiss. What do jyou thjink?"

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa knew that look, and judging by the small size of the bag, she had a good mind to the contents within. She said little, offering instead a thin-lipped smile as she waited for the little maneater to get an appraisal of her chosen scent.

"Kosa, ssjissterr, jyou musst thjink jI'm ssome haplesss Gamorrrean ssow."

[Q. Samus Dage]

With little choice but to do as she asked; not to mention there really was no missing the scent that Rai'fa's wrist had swiftly placed just beneath his nose, Samus gave a sniff. It was a nice smell to be sure.

"Very nice."

Was she hoping for more? He suspected that she was, and after a moment of thought, he complied.

"It compliments you. You'll turn heads for certain."

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"Hopefulljy jI'll turrn ssomethjing elsse asss well."

Rai'faani's hand retreated to fall by her side, but not before a brush against Dage's crotch in such a manner that couldn't have been an accident. She paused, considering exactly how turned the Commander truly was, and gave a shrug of disinterest when it wasn't to a sufficient degree. Maybe there was something lost in human olfactory sense.

"Let'ss eat. jI'm gettjing cold ljimp meat one wajy orr anotherr."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa rolled her eyes, tightening her clutch on Dage as the group finished passing through the bazaar.

"jYou'rre gojing to be trruljy horrrjible unlesss jI fjind jyou ssome prrettjy thjing to rrjide, arren't jyou?"

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"The pjicturre of mjisserrjy!"

Rai'faani's tail swished wide, smacking both T'yeellaa and her gai'tou on the back as she buoyed her ears with lascivious meaning.

"jI want one jin unjiforrm. jIt'ss sso queerr, the contrradjictjion."

As she walked, the younger Meorrrei removed a small case from her purse. She opened the abalone-shell container, removing a small, leathery leaf, which she placed in her mouth and began to chew. She paused, stealing a glance up at Dage as her eyes dilated slightly.

"Would jI ssalute hjim? Would jI tearr each button on hjiss unjiforrm off wjith mjy teeth? jIt feelss ljike sscandal."

[Q. Samus Dage]

The brush against his crotch was most certainly unexpected, but to Dage's credit he took it in stride as best he could. And truthfully it wasn't difficult to do. T'yeellaa's suddenly protective grip on him was met with a reassuring squeeze to her own small hand.

But, a question had been asked of him, and the rangy blonde found the younger Meorrrei's eyes on him with curious intent.

"Well, I suppose it depends. For some it's rather bad form to sully and damage a man's uniform."

He gave a shrug.

"Then again, some don't seem to care. The latter are few and far between in my experience, though."

A thought occurred to him, and he turned to look down at T'yeellaa as the three continued on toward Concourse C. It was an unspoken passing along of the duty to answer Rai'fa's question.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa savored the deferred question with a smile.

"jI neverr rrealjized how good a unjiforrm looked untjil jI ssaw a man jin one."

Not as bawdy as Rai'faani was expecting, but an earnest response without having to get into the details of their curious relationship.

"Djifferrent djissh, djifferrent flavorr. jI don't thjink jyou can jusst put a unjiforrm on anjy man and get the effect. Ssamuss knowss how to wearr one. jI don't thjink jit'ss a gatewajy to becomjing a lessbjian jif that'ss what jyou'rre askjing, Rai'fa."

T'yeellaa snorted in a graceless laugh as the trio finally arrived at their destination.

The charm of taa'u nintaai was it's lack of pretentiousness. No warm lighting sconces, no fancy scenery. It was a bar that could seat eight, a few rows of meat hanging from hooks in the ceiling, and a knifer. The knifer at this establishment was a droid, which was a bit of a frown. No shirtless male tirelessly steeling a long blade before shearing off thin morsels on demand. Instead, a spindly IL series droid coolly focused one of it's four visual receptors on the patrons as they arrived, twirling a cleaver deftly as it rotated on it's swivel to return to work.

"Ja irra rrou'ei i arr'sorr. Kaan'o ne taa'u i taas'i?"

At least with a droid, it was easier to change things up. T'yeellaa pulled out a seat for Dage to sit in, placing a hand on the icy-cool counter.

"Sspeak bassjic, drrojid."

The knifer droid paused, a click of it's subprocessors signalling the prompt's acceptance.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. May I have your meat and drink orders, please?"

[Q. Samus Dage]

Dage sat, not exactly sure what to do with the bags he was carrying (at least he didn't have as many in hand as T'yeellaa), and finally settled for placing them on the ground between his feet.

He was in new territory now, and the blonde blew out a bit of a long breath as he looked first at the droid, then to the hanging slabs of meat. It looked edible enough, and he had to restrain himself from looking further behind the counter for some sort of small Iktochi grill hidden away. They did have the option to cook the meat, right?

Leaning back on his seat only slightly, he gave a look to T'yeellaa on his right, then Rai'faani on his left. Then back to T'yeellaa.

"Ladies first," he gestured with one hand over the top of the bar at the droid.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

Rai'fa perched atop her barstool like a songbird, her tail bobbing up and down as she retrieved her ordering holoflimsy. She scrolled through the offerings, tapping a few here and there with a claw tip.

"S'inta tea."

While she worked on picking her selections, the knifer moved down the line, using two of it's appendages to prepare Rai'fa's tea, which was a cool selection of a cloudy concoction with maroon-colored spheres added to it with ice.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa made sure Dage was situated, taking one of the ordering flimsis as she considered her choice of drink.

"Kri'achee."

The droid went to the hot plate to tend to her warmer drink, leaving T'yeellaa some time to offer Dage a little help.

"jYou pjick jyourr chojicess herre and how manjy jyou want. jIf jyou want morre, jyou jusst change the numberr laterr."

The K'ohta'rrou tapped a button at the upper right to open a menu, where she once again changed the Cizeri glyphs to Aurrebesh, revealing to Dage some pretty no-nonsense choices. Kaatho, eopie, kuula, dewback, and a good thirty other selections. Creatures of land, sea, and air, from over a dozen different worlds were on display, both on the menu and beyond the knifer in some state of disassembly.

"He cutss to orrderr, drredgess jit overr a ssalt sslab, and ssome get ssauce wjith jit."

Already, Rai'fa had punched in her first wave of choices, and the knifer worked to sliver away from a skinned kooitoi - a meter-high flightless bird whose long neck and long legs had been removed to easily find space on the rack.

[Q. Samus Dage]

"I'll probably stick with the dewback," came the thoughtful answer as his eyes wandered to menu. "At least to start... "

A pause, and a hand came up, finger pointing to one of the selections as he did his best to pronounce the word.

"Paarri'antou? What's that?"

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"A gjiant ssea ssnajil."

For emphasis, Rai'fa pointed out the flat, bluish-green carcass lying on an opposite counter. She impishly selected it on her menu, then gestured to Dage.

"Mjy frrjiend wantss to trrjy."

The IL droid whurred with acknowledgment, one of his knife-wielding arms moving to the selected cut and expertly portioned off a bite-sized portion. A smaller manipulator arm pinched it up, ran it across a salt block, and laid it in front of the human.

[Q. Samus Dage]

Before he could say otherwise, Rai'faani had made sure to have the simple question magnified to the point that the small slice (arguably unappetizing looking if he were to be honest) was sitting in front of him on a small wooden slab of a plate.

"... thanks?"

Never one to shirk responsibility, the blonde gamely plucked the slice up in two fingers, lifting it up in a show of inspection.

Terrifying.

Then again, he'd once resorted to eating shakka beetles on Malastare during a particularly long bit of fighting that saw the endline of their rations. He could handle this. He hoped.

A quick breath, and the whole thing was lifted up, the dropped into his mouth before his brain could find any other protestation for not eating it. He chewed, eyes narrowing as the texture and taste mingled together. It was certainly not Myomarian homecooking.

Another few chews, and he ordered himself to swallow. A slight gasp, and he reached for the glass of water that the droid had set out before him. Drinking deeply, Dage washed the taste down as best he could. He coughed.

"I'll stick to the dewback, I think."