milliways_bar | Gardening

"Hoi!" Baze says, his staff slung over his shoulders and his arms looped around it. He's tired and sweaty from doing forms by the lake, but content, as he often is in heaven. "Are you gardening? What are you growing?"

The girl looks up from pulling some well-rooted grass from among some strawberries, and smiles. She is likewise sweaty, and more than a little filthy from all the dirt, but she grins in the sunlight because it is worthwhile dirt and well-spent sweat. She sees some of the same kind of happiness in his contentment, and it makes her glad.

"I'm growing radishes, and spinach, and carrots, and three types of lettuce! Or trying to - I've never grown any of 'em before," she answers, beaming. "The strawberries aren't mine, but I thought they could use some care, too."

He beams at her filthy state. Good. Kids should get dirty, and enjoy themselves doing so.

"That's a lot!" Baze says, boggling at everything she's growing. "I've had carrots, but I haven't had any of the other four. I grew up on a desert moon, and there was little water to grow things, so we had to import everything via the hyperspace lanes. Vegetables were fairly rare, especially fresh."

He shifts the staff to one of his armored shoulders. "You're not one of Guppy's kids, are you?"

Edited 2017-05-23 19:56 (UTC)

"Not had any of them?" she echoes, wide-eyed. "But a desert - that would explain - these need enough water to grow, and warmth and sunlight but not too much heat, and the lettuce and spinach don't last too long after being picked."

The girl picks herself up from where she was kneeling on a little foam pad to keep the mud from her knees, and dusts herself off - or at least, transfers some of the dirt from her hands to her jeans and then brushes some of that off to fall back onto the ground.

"I'm not one of Guppy's kids, but Fry and Coral and Brooke are friends of mine. Fry, Coral and I are in the Milliscouts together, and Brooke too I bet, as she gets older."

"Our sun was also too weak to grow things," Baze explains, with a quick grin. "It was a desert with a permanent winter. There were seasons, but they were largely 'cold' and 'very cold,' with a side order of 'biting cold.'"

Baze considers the names of Guppy's children, which he had not heard before, and tries to match them up with their ages. "I'm Baze Malbus, by the way. It's nice to meet you, miss...?"

"Oh man," she says, shivering a little with the idea. "I can't imagine it being cold all the time. It's like that some places in my world, but only at the north and south poles, and they get weak light or darkness half a year at a time."

"Where I'm from it gets cold at wintertime, but it gets nice and warm in spring and early fall, and lovely bright and blazing hot in summer. It's like that here, too," she assures him, smiling. "It's good to meet you, Baze Malbus. I'm Rae, Rae Seddon."

Rae Seddon. Huuuh. Okay, then. Baze thinks he can wrap his head around that. She seems equally charming at this age, at least.

"Charmed," he says, offering a hand to the redhead. "And yes, I've heard that the outside here is like Scotland--not that I have a lot of experience with Earth countries. I'm looking forward to the summertime heat. And the snow in the winter. It was never wet enough to snow back on Jedha."

He beams at her. "You must be an experienced gardener to take on so many vegetables at once."

The girl shakes his hand, beaming.

"Oh you'll love snow," she says, emphatically. "It's fluffy and white and makes the cold fun and worthwhile." All the worst winter days are those with nothing to show for it.

"I'm more of an experience-ing gardener," she admits. "I'm still learning, but I want to see what I can do."

"I'm looking forward to it," Baze says, taking his hand back after giving her a firm shake. "So why did you choose these vegetables specifically? You've got all the sun and water you could ever use, so you must have been spoiled for choice."

"All the sun and water," she agrees, "but a bit pressed for time if I'm going to have anything to enter for the fair. My way here didn't show up for a while, so I'm a bit late getting started. I had to choose things that'll grow quickly."

"Oh, the fair!" Baze says, as cheerful as he ever is in heaven. "Yeah, Bonnie mentioned that. Will you have a lot of competition, you think?"

"Oh I hope so," she says, gamely. "It's only fun when you get to see what others have been working on too."

"Yes, definitely," Base says, chuckling. He shifts the staff to his other shoulder. "I know next to nothing about gardening, otherwise I'd probably enter, too. Do you get Milliscouts badges for entering the fair, or only if you win?"

"I didn't know anything about gardening either, the first time I tried," Rae tells him, encouragingly. "But last year my jalapeno peppers won first prize among the vegetables, even if they're technically fruits. I got a blue ribbon and a gold star Milliscout badge for them. Usually the judges award ribbons for the first, second, and third place entrants, and the scouts can get a gold, silver or bronze star badge depending how their entries place. There's best fruit, best vegetable, and best craftwork or artwork item categories this year. There'll also be game booths and food stalls, and music and dancing, and a bonfire with marshmallows to toast over them that night, and fireworks over the lake."

If she sounds excited it's because she is. The fair is something she always looks forward to now.

"That's a lot of prizes," Baze says, staying still. When he moves, it's with purpose, and he doesn't feel the need to do so now. "I don't know what jalapeño peppers are, specifically, but I love peppers in general. I also don't know what marshmallows are at all, and I've never seen fireworks. My.friend Chirrut is blind, so I doubt he'd get much out of colorful explosions that he can't see, so we'll probably just stay indoors for those."

"They are very loud, but sparkly and colorful. My friend Autor and I stayed inside last year for the fireworks, too, because he didn't like how they sounded."

Her smile had faded somewhat, in the knowledge of some of what upsets Autor, but solemn thoughts require quick subject changes.

"We can go in and get some marshmallows so you can try them, if you like, though they're best when toasted over a fire because they get all crispy on the outside and melty gooey on the inside. And we could find something with jalapeno in it - they're usually a bit too spicy for people to eat on their own."

Baze notices the subject change, and decides not to pursue the conversational line that made that brilliant smile fade. "That's a great idea," he says, with a quick grin. "I'm starving. Thanks, Miss Rae. Do you want to come back out here and light a fire? Or can we just order toasted marshmallows from the bar?"

At ten, with the Wars starting, she is already getting good experience in offering distraction from subjects or things that distress, upset, or hurt people. There is already too much hurt in the universe.

"You know," she says after a moment, "I never thought to ask for toasted marshmallow from Bar, before, just the untoasted kind. It takes time to toast them yourself over a fire, and it's pretty great when you get it just right, but we can ask the bar for today. For the sake of trying them out. And we can get some real food too, if you're hungry - marshmallows aren't very substantial, just happy and melty and sweet."

Rae is obviously a fan.

"Happy and melty and sweet sounds good to me," Baze says, and loops his staff over both his shoulders again, bracing his arms over it. "So does real food, with jalapeño peppers. Lead the way."

Rae smiles up at him, and gathers up her watering can and spade and mat. "Lets go this way - we can wash our hands on the way in."

There are few things sadder than a dirt smudge on a clean marshmallow. Multiple dirt smudges, perhaps.

She leads him towards the kitchen's outside door, where she settles her gardening things beside the steps up to the door, and leads Baze through.

"We're you practicing fighting?" She asks, curious, with a look at the staff Baze carries.

"I was," Baze says, tipping his staff into one hand to better fit it through the doorway. "The order I used to be a part of--the Guardians of the Whills--had forms for staffwork. The duans were part of a martial art that stressed physical perfection. I'm sorely out of practice"--from years of killing people with blasters instead, which he doesn't tell a ten-year-old--"and my friend Chirrut has been encouraging me to work on my posture and katas, so we can spar with each other again. I used to train the children back at the temple, but that was a literal lifetime ago."

He allows her to lead him to the sink, and sets his staff up against the edge of it while he waits his turn to wash his hands.

Rae washes her hands thoroughly but quickly, up to the elbows, the way she's seen Charlie do at the coffeehouse more times than she can remember. Then she dries her hands and steps out of the way, offering to pump some of the peach-scented foaming liquid soap into Baze's hands for him.

"We're you training the kids to be guardians, too?" People who protect important things, even if 'Whills' isn't something Rae knows, are to be respected and appreciated. No one wants the people and things and ideas they hold dear to be without protection.

Baze thanks her for the soap. He's not as thorough as she is, and certainly doesn't roll the sleeves of his ratty jumpsuit to wash to his elbows, but he gets his hands clean enough. He shakes water droplets off his hands and takes up his staff again, resting the six-foot length on his shoulder.

"Yes, eventually, or Disciples, who were less focused on the physical side of things," Baze says, beaming at her. "We chanted a lot. 'The Force is with me, and I am with the Force, and I fear nothing, for all is as the Force wills it.'"

This is all new to her, but she likes it. And it all is very much like Baze himself - big and unfamiliar, but friendly and interesting! The girl is trying - and failing - not to seem as curious as she feels.

"What is the Force?" she asks, trying to limit herself to the one question as they step through the door into the bar room and over to the Bar. "What does it mean to be one with it?"

The second question just slipped out, she swears!

(ooc: Mun must crash for the night to be able to drag herself out of bed for work tomorrow, but will be around for further threading then! Thank you for sending Baze to little'Rae!)

Baze laughs. He gently encourages curiosity wherever he finds it, especially in children, and even more so about the Force. Despite only regaining his belief in it again since he arrived at Milliways, the old habits are engrained in him, and as easy and comfortable to slip into as an old robe.

"The Force is an energy field that binds and surrounds all living things," Baze says, settling his armored bulk on a bar stool and leaning his staff against the counter. Bar pops a mug of hot chocolate with tang bark up for him, which he's delighted with.

Her second question is much harder to answer, as no one's ever asked that of him before. Baze takes a gulp of his drink, holding it in his mouth to mull over his words. He swallows, and smiles at her again.

"Being one with the Force is centering yourself. The Force is ever-present and all powerful, and if you can be one with it, you can enjoy the harmony it brings, and project that harmony outwards," Baze says, taking another sip. "Some people, like my friend, Chirrut, are Force sensitive, and can sense moods and tell when people are lying, stuff like that. Others are Force users, and they can manipulate objects, freeze people, or influence minds. We call them Jedi or Sith."

(OOC: Of course! Have a good night, and good luck at work tomorrow!)

"I like it when people can be at peace and have harmony. Though it doesn't seem to happen often where I come from. I've tried meditating here a couple of times, but I get distracted," she admits, smiling slightly. Rae's relationship with the concept of religion is an odd one, with some bad experiences, but she is curious nonetheless. In any case, she is in the bar, and she feels safe here.

"Does the Force choose who can sense it or use it? Or is the ability like... is it like how the ability to use magic is in my world, handed down from one generation to the next?" To her, the abilities of the Force users do sound like things magic handlers can do.

"Meditation comes easier with practice, but when you're young, it's really difficult to stay still for that long, and quiet your mind," Baze says, nursing his hot chocolate. His smile turns sheepish. "Chirrut is really good at meditation; I'm pretty horrible at it. He has more faith than I do."

He nods firmly. "The Force is largely genetic, and passed down through families, though there are always some outliers. People think it's magic, but it's really not, though some of the abilities certainly seem magical."

Rae nods - that makes sense. An affinity for the Force might look like magic, but isn't, and it's mostly genetic. "Sometimes genetic abilities and features can hop down generations without an outward sign and then suddenly show back up again unexpectedly, with the family not really knowing where exactly it came from."

It's a well-known phenomenon in her world, sometimes with disastrous results. But Baze and his hot chocolate has gotten her to thinking of the reason they came in.

"If we're going to introduce you to marshmallows, the best way would be with hot chocolate - hot chocolate with marshmallows in it is fantastic. They float up on the top of it and melt into soft, warm sweetness."

Whether toasted or melted, soft sweetness seems to be the theme.

"Yes, that's right," Baze says, raising his mug to her in a salute. He wouldn't think a ten-year-old would know about genetics--he only learned as a teen--but perhaps Earth trains their youngsters differently. They certainly don't seem to know anything about staffwork, so his education must be insulated.

He chuckles. "But the hot chocolate is already sweet. Are the marshmallows to make it sweeter, or do they just stand on their own?"

Rae smiles slightly, pleased. She has always tried not to let schooling get in the way of her education, especially where it pertains to her favorite hobby-subject, Others. Despite her mother's best efforts, all of Rae's favorite books have involved the Others, the various kinds of sentient non-humans who also inhabit her world along with humanity. She is the kind of kid who would read a story and then want to find out if and how the young daughter of the story town's mayor could feasibly develop abilities out of nowhere and somehow manage to save the day and the town in the nick of time.

It may have led to some extracurricular reading. Like with gardening and baking and trying new foods, she seeks out what she is interested in.

"The marshmallows aren't really to make it sweeter, but they do - they're just a little something extra. In my world, lots of people drink hot chocolate in winter, and to get hot chocolate with marshmallows in it just... extra nice," she smiles at him, the happiness of a growing feeder of people sharing new foods with a new friend.

"Bar? Could we have... a cup of hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows in it, and a couple of the larger sized marshmallows too?" Another cup of hot chocolate appears, topped with mini-marshmallows, creating an uneven layer of pillowy whiteness upon the surface of the liquid below, and a saucer with two campfire-toasting-sized marshmallows on it. "Thank you, Bar. Let's try the plain marshmallows first."

"This hot chocolate has tang bark in it," Baze.says, gesturing to his own mug. "The bark makes the drink saltier, and neutralizes some of the sweetness of the limited amount of sugar put in the original brew. You're probably used to drinking sweeter hot chocolate then I am; there was very little sugar used on Jedha, as it had to be imported. I'd never had hot chocolate before I came here, but it has quickly become my favorite drink."

He plucks up one of the bigger marshmallows and pops it into his mouth. It's incredibly sweet, almost cloyingly so, and sticks to his teeth in all the right ways. The treat is gooey and soft and delicious, and Baze--who has always had a sweet tooth, ever since the elders gave him a candy to reward him for doing a good job in staffwork--fjnds he likes it.

"Mmm," he says, his enjoyment showing in his closed eyes, and relaxed features. "That's amazing."

"Marshmallows are great," the girl nods, beaming at Baze and enjoying his enjoyment of the new treat. But she is curious, herself! "But I've never heard of tang bark before. Sweet and salty things together are usually really good. Bar? Could I try some hot chocolate with tang bark?"

A small mug of hot chocolate fixed like Baze's appears. "Thank you."

She blows over the surface of the hot drink, then takes a tentative sip, considering the taste. "Oh!" she breathes, blinking and taking another sip. "Oh, I like that. It's different, not nearly as sweet as I'm used to, but you get the taste of the chocolate more strongly."

"Yes, exactly," Baze says, opening his eyes and smiling down at her. "It's a bit nutty, isn't it? Tang bark is a common additive in my galaxy. I haven't had hot chocolate without it, so I don't have an apt comparison, but I like it this way."

That said, he tries the new hot chocolate, the one that she ordered earlier, with the marshmallows. He pulls a fish face. "Oh, Force, that's sweet!" he says, chuckling. "And you're right, the tang bark brings out the taste of the chocolate. I like the melted marshmallows, though."

"I like the tang bark - it is a bit nutty, like... I guess the closest comparison is the kind of..." she sips the hot chocolate again, thinking, "the warm, slightly salty earthiness of hazelnuts or cashew nuts, in my world."

But Rae can't help but dissolve into giggles at the face Baze pulls, hiding her grin behind the cup of hot chocolate. "They're very sweet if you're not used to them."

"Sometimes people put cayenne, which is spicy, in their hot chocolate instead of marshmallows. Cayenne peppers are related to jalapenos, but cayenne peppers most often get dried and ground up into a find powder that can be added in small amounts, because it's so spicy-hot. Spicy and sweet flavors go really well together, and the temperature heat of the hot chocolate and the spicy heat of the cayenne make it a really warming drink when it's cold outside."

"I'll have to try these hazelnuts or cashews," Baze says, and laughs. "For liking food as much as I do, I sure have a limited palate!"

He beams at her explanation of the cayenne. "Someone I met here gave me a coffee drink with chocolate and chili powder in it. That was delicious. She called it a mocha, and said it's what people consider as being from her home, Mexico," he says, finishing off his old hot chocolate--dregs and all, because waste not, want not--and making inroads on the new one. Slowly, because it's ridiculously sweet. "Chirrut likes things spicy--the hotter the better. I don't know how he doesn't burn his mouth."

"Trying new foods is one of my favorite things about coming here," she says, enthusiastically. "Food from other worlds and times... and there're a lot of foods even in my own world I've not gotten a chance to try, either because we can't get them where I live, or they're too expensive, but they can be gotten here so easily!"

She sips her hot chocolate with tang bark, mulling over the flavors. The saltiness combines delightfully with the slightly bitter chocolate, and the nuttiness that is like and unlike familiar kinds of nuts she's tried is a pleasant surprise with each sip.

"I like spicy foods, but there's a point where it's too spicy and it hurts and I can't taste anything else," she admits, thinking of what they might try. "Mexican food often uses jalapenos, too. Want to try jalapenos, and some of the dishes they're used in? They'd be real food, and can be a break from all the sweetness."

"I imagine that will quickly grow to be one of my favorite things about this place as well. Bar is wonderful, isn't she?" Baze says, patting the counter. "She provides everything we could ever want."

He grins at Rae. "Oh, yes, please. I'm glad you asked. What would you recommend?"

Edited 2017-05-24 21:11 (UTC)

"She's amazing," Rae agrees heartily, smiling at the counter. "Bar? May we have a jalapeno - so's to show what they look like, and a couple of jalapeno slices so Baze might try them by themselves? And two glasses of milk too, please, for after that." Just in case! It's important to know what an ingredient's flavor is first to be able to pick it out from a recipe containing lots of different things, but she doesn't want to burn his mouth, either. Jalapenos aren't so terribly hot as some other peppers, but they can be surprising if you've not encountered them before. "And some salsa with jalapenos in it, and tortilla chips?"

The girl looks up at Baze. "Do people eat meat where you come from? Jalapenos are used in a lot of dishes, and some of them have meat in them."

Baze plucks up one of the jalapeño slices and pops it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. The burn is pleasant, and the flavor bursts on his tongue, but after a while he reaches for the milk. "Oh, that's delicious. It doesn't quite have the bite of alcohol," he says, forgetting that a ten-year-old probably hasn't tried drinking yet, "but the jalapeño does have a kick to it! The milk is good, too. I've never had milk that isn't blue bantha milk."

He next scoops up a generous helping of salsa with a tortilla chip, and crunches the ensemble between his teeth. He delights in the tomatoes, the onions, the jalapeños, and the squirt of lime--none of which he's tried before, except for the onions earlier and the jalapeños just now. "Mmm. Thanks, Rae. That's amazing."

Then he laughs. "Oh, sorry, I almost forgot about your question. Yes, people eat meat where I come from, though probably not the meats you're used to. I myself am an omnivore, despite my limited exposure to veggies."

Edited 2017-05-24 21:35 (UTC)

She grins. "And I've never had blue bantha milk - or seen a bantha. That's milk from cows there, from cattle. People eat their meat too, in my world, and call it beef. I don't eat meat, though."

Rae may steal a tortilla chip and a scoop of the salsa for herself. "Salsa's pretty great - and there are a lot of different recipes for it. Some are warm and a little sweet, others are green and fiery-hot, and some are in the middle like this. The chopped up red fruit in it - technically fruit though they're used as vegetables - are tomatoes, which are lovely by themselves with a little salt, and there's chopped up onions and jalapenos, and a little cilantro - an herb - and the kind of bright flavor to it is from lime juice, which is very tart by itself."

"Bantha are huge," Baze says, spreading his arms out all the way to indicate size--not that he could, with a bantha. They're just too big. "About twice the size of a speeder car. They're usually brown, with giant, swirling horns, and big, black lips. They're very furry, and Tuskan Raiders ride them. We eat their milk and muscle--and call their meat beef, too--and use their hides to make clothing."

He indulges in another chip. "I love the tomatoes. I'll have to try them by themselves. I think I've had tomato-based sauces, but never the fruits fresh like this. And the lime is delicious. What is this called again? Salsa?"

"Tomatoes are some of my favorites, especially in summer. You can get tomatoes in winter but it's hardly worth it - they have no taste then, and the texture's all wrong because they were grown out of season," she confides. Tips and tricks of fresh produce!

"It's salsa, yeah - which I think just translates to 'sauce' in the language spoken in Mexico and its neighboring countries, but in most of the rest of the world means specifically a sauce or dip like this. Chopped-up fresh ingredients mixed together to create a dip or sauce."

She did promise real food though, too, and her mind has come up with an idea.

"Enchiladas are another pretty common food from Mexico too, I think. They're made by taking meats and vegetables and sometimes beans and cheese and rolling them up into a tortilla - a kind of very flat bread made with wheat or corn, kind of like a larger, soft version of these chips - and covering them with a sauce," she says, trying to figure out how one might explain familiar foods to someone who had never experienced them before. "Sometimes Charlie - my step-dad - he'll make chicken, spinach and cheese enchiladas with a jalapeno cream sauce. He'll make mine with cheese and sauteed spinach and mushrooms, and they're delicious."

"I imagine Bar will get us freshly-grown tomatoes to enjoy," he says, smiling down at the counter. He listens to Rae's.description of the enchiladas, and nods. "Well, what are we waiting for? Bar, two plates of Charlie's famous spinach and mushroom enchiladas, if you please."

Bar provides, and Baze pats the counter. He cuts into the cheesy food with his fork, and places a bite on his tongue. His eyes widen. "Mmm," he says, and starts wolfing it down, enjoying every bite.

Rae grins at his enthusiasm for the enchiladas. "I hadn't thought of ordering a specific recipe as made by a specific person before - that's clever."

She digs in, as well, happy upon finding the flavor to be almost exactly as Charlie makes it, with the edges of the mushrooms slightly crispy from the sautee, and the jalapeno cream mellow instead of terribly spicy. "The greens inside the enchilada are spinach that has been sauteed with the sliced mushrooms - I'm growing some spinach out in the garden this year. Maybe I can figure out some recipes to use it in, if it grows well."

"Maybe you can learn to make this," Baze says, disappointed when his fork clinks on an empty plate. Bar refills it for him without being asked, and he's delighted. "It's delicious. I especially like the sauce, but I've always had a penchant for creamy things. Thanks for the recommendation, Rae."

"You're very welcome!" she chirrups back, cheerfully. That is one thing Rae loves, no matter her age: sharing delicious food with the people she meets.

(OOC: Aaaand that looks like a great spot for a fade to me. Thanks for the thread!)

(ooc: Thank YOU! You and your Baze are a delight!)

(OOC: Aww, thanks! He's fun to play, and I hope that comes through. Rae is, as Baze said, equally charming at all ages.)

Gardening

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