gift delivery and EP

[electro_kinetic]

When Noriko comes in with boxes and gift wrap, it's pretty obvious what she's doing: when she pulls out a container of delicate glass snowflakes (yeah, she made them all) separated by careful layers of bubble wrap, it might be less so. But she works her way through the few things to wrap, each impeccably done in a simple but careful Japanese style, tied around with knots made in paper cord. This, too, she does to the snowflakes, which each go into cards (there are a lot more of those) and are slid into envelopes, all addressed already.

Few people get gifts, left at the bar for the next time they come in, but everyone she's talked to more than about twice gets a snowflake and a pretty card.

She's totally interruptable while she's wrapping stuff.

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[imthepilot]

Bodhi only recently learnt about the gift giving component of this Earth tradition so he's doing the best he can.

Fortunately he has several different plants that are easy to propagate and make good gifts. He has them spread out on a table, planting them into little pods.

He looks over at Noriko, watching her wrap her gifts. He brings her over a plant. "For you."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko usually doesn't request gifts: she doesn't really celebrate Christmas or anything, so she isn't expecting anyone to come up and bring her things. She does, however anachronistically, give people things, so Bodhi has a small box wrapped for him.

"Thank you," she says, smiling: she likes plants, and has quite a few in her room here. "I have one for you, if you'd like it." It's a tiny metal model, small enough to fit in a hand, of the Wright Brothers' Flyer, set on a wooden stand.

[imthepilot]

"It'll bloom in the spring. Tiny purple flowers." He explains with a soft smile.

"Oh." He wasn't expecting anything in return. "May I ask, what is it?"

[electro_kinetic]

"I like purple, so this will be lovely," she says, taking the little plant and stroking a fingertip gently over the skin of the thing. "You could, but you could also unwrap it and see what it is."

[imthepilot]

He nods and opens it up, holding it up to the light to get a better look at it. "It's a... ship? It's not one I recognise. Is it from Earth?"

[electro_kinetic]

"It's an airplane, actually. This was the first craft that anyone ever flew from my Earth," she explains. "But I thought you might like it, since you're a pilot." A very different sort of pilot, yes, but still. He flies.

[imthepilot]

"Thank you. That's... really very thoughtful." He's a little shocked and rather pleased. "Thank you." He turns the model in his hands, holding it up to the light to see the details better. "It must have been terrifying, that first time."

[electro_kinetic]

"I imagine it was," she says. "I mean, it was a long time before I was born, I've only seen replicas in museums."

[imthepilot]

"It's so delicate. How did they ever get it on the air?" He marvels softly. "I'll have to go learn more about it. Thank you."

[electro_kinetic]

"There was an engine in it," she says, a smile touching her face. "A small one, and probably noisy and messy as hell, but it was the first time someone had managed to do more than gliding."

[imthepilot]

"The world I'm from never built things like this. It never needed to. It was colonised after interplanetary travel was common. But not hyperspace travel. The first pilgrims must have come a long way to find it."

[electro_kinetic]

"We've never had interplanetary travel, not that's really feasible. We're working on it, though. We've made it to the surface of our moon, but not any other actual planets. We don't really know if there's other life out there like us."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi considers that for a long moment. "Perhaps that's why your Earth has such diverse cultures. Because there's no-one outside. No-one you need a unified identity to face."

[electro_kinetic]

"Probably. That's why so many of us that are mutants...that's what we are. Not American, or Japanese, or boy or girl or whatever. We're mutants first."

[imthepilot]

"The fighter pilots are like that. Coffin Jockey, first and foremost. No matter where you came from. Not so much with cargo pilots. We're all still outer-rim scum. Even if we do work for the Empire, we're not seen as imperials. At least not by other imperials."

[electro_kinetic]

"Outer Rim?" Nori echoes. "I mean, I don't think you're scum, you're pretty cool by my measure."

[imthepilot]

"The outer rim territories. Jedha is, was, in the very outer edge of the galaxy. As far from anywhere as you can get."

He smiles and blushes. "Thank you. That's sweet of you to say."

[electro_kinetic]

"Well, it's true. I think you're pretty cool. And I bet your guy is too."

[imthepilot]

"He loves silly puns. It's the dad joke thing, I think." Bodhi smiles fondly.

[electro_kinetic]

"I can't say Remy does he same thing, but I'm not sure he'd old enough for dad jokes." He's still in the perpetually horny stage of things.

"You want to sit and help me wrap?"

[imthepilot]

He smiles and sits, examining the wrappings so he can do it right. "Galen is older, quite a bit older than me but- I don't know. It just never seemed to matter to us."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko nods as she folds paper over and over again, motions practiced and precise. "Remy is like...thirty, maybe thirty-one, so he's about a decade older than me. It makes some people stare because he's considered too old for someone as juvenile as I'm considered."

[imthepilot]

He shrugs. "I figure love makes all that irrelevant. Death too."

[electro_kinetic]

"I think for the most part, that's true," she says. "But there are some ages that should have different goals. But if yours align, then go for it."

[imthepilot]

"All Galen and I want is peace. And time to learn how to live without the war."

[quick_clean_pure]

Graverobber's just sitting at the bar, enjoying a nice cold mug of beer and people-watching to kill some time. He notices Noriko come in laden with wrapping paper and boxes and watches her haul them in with a curious look. "You need help carrying those?" he asks.

[electro_kinetic]

To be fair, Noriko is doing a passable job of holding the boxes steady between her outstretched arms and her chin, but she'd like to not drop all of them when she stops: thus the reply coming to Graverobber, "It'd be nice, yeah."

Some of the things are breakable. Like the plastic box full of a riot of tissue paper colors. Ah, spun glass. "These are kinda delicate, though. Be careful."