trans_9 | clear the mind & work the earth

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clear the mind & work the earth

Arha had decided to ignore a chunk of her strengthening exercises and wander into the Hydroponics section with the express intent at harvesting seeds and young plants for her garden in the city. That was not quite true, she supposed, she had abandoned the planned exercises. Currently, she had about five bubbles floating around her, each bearing a seed or young plant. She still ached in twinges when she held the Force thusly, but all in all, she was healed. Arha had been surprised at the sheer length of time it had taken before her mind had healed--her Force use, especially. But then, she had done it a great deal of damage.

She reached to cup a strange flower and watched its petals spread, bright orange with a wash of black ringed spots, glossy with gathered moisture. It was a cup-shaped flower, squat, with a bright blue stem. She let her fingers trail against its petals, murmuring softly. She nudged her way past a tangle of growth and into a darker space where she found thousands of palm-sized glowing blue-white lilies. She gathered seeds from some and a few dozen juvenile plants. The space was nearly overcrowded with them as it was. The added plants to her collection of bobbing spheres was enough to make the warning twinge surface.

Arha managed to work her way out of the semi-jungle and took the moment to sit underneath the shade of an oddly shaped tree. Her purloined plants bobbed as they cleared the tangle and drifted toward her. It took delicate work to pull them from the area without damaging anything--them or the area.

It was better than the routine she'd worked out for her day.

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Kyle had returned home to the villa after the day's training was concluded to find Arha missing. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised, but he still was. He'd started to get used to her being there every time he got home. The villa felt rather empty without her presence. Still, it was good that she was moving around without his help, even if he still worried. Deciding that maybe getting out might be good for him as well he set out to find her. When he did finally locate her in the Force he felt a bit silly for not thinking of Hydroponics right away. She had wanted to get some plants for the house after all.

Walking over he plopped himself down beside her under the tree. "Hi there! Keeping up with your practice I see."

Arha leaned her cheek into his shoulder wordlessly for a moment, stretching her palm out as she pulled one of the glowing plants to hover above it. She let it rotate slowly.

"Always," she said. "It took a little bit of a detour, but, I am still practicing. This is near my limit for the day, sadly. I find myself sore once more." Arha blinked and nudged the plant away. It bobbed, still rotating, and she caught Kyle's chin, her appraisal intense.

"Your training with the new pilots was satisfactory?" she asked, dropping a kiss across his lips. It was lazy and one of the seedling almost dropped from its orbit.

He happily returned her kiss, and he certainly didn't mind that her's was lazy. In fact that was just the sort of kiss he wanted right now. A release from the pressures of the day. "The recruits are doing alright. I'd like to see a few of them lose some more of their attitudes, but I think they can work with others as a team now, which is all this was for really. I'm just glad it's almost over. I'm getting tired of barking at them all day just for show."

"I am pleased to hear this," she said, her voice a murmur. "I am also pleased that I have been declared fit to resume flying. I will look forward to seeing how our new pilots perform in the cockpit as well as with the rest of us."

Arha tucked herself against him, thinking of flying again.

"I am sure they shall be just as glad that you are not being loud at them," she added. "Such is never pleasant, but it is a needed stage in training. This you know. But, as you said, it is a thing that is almost over."

"You are? That's great!" As a reward he kissed the top of her head. "I'm sure you'll be impressed with the progress they've made."

At the mention of the training again, he grumbled a little before settling back against her. "You know how I feel about titles. It was required in this case, but I'll be glad if I'm never called Drill Instructor ever again. It will be nice to get back to just being Kyle for a while."

"I am sure I shall be," she said with a soft smile. "It is always a beautiful thing to take those who have not worked together and help them to accept others as a unit. We shall have a strong camaraderie as Rogues." Her fingers drifted across his hair lazily.

"You are always Kyle to me," she murmured. "No matter what you are called by anyone else."

"I really hope we do. We're going to need it, that's for sure." She was probably right though. The squadron already was starting to bond quite a bit, and in time they'd become a hell of a fighting unit. After that a lot of the formality they had to use right now could be dropped. Maybe then he could just be Kyle to even the rookies.

"Our first engagement proved this," Arha said thoughtfully, letting one of the plantlings bob a little. The glowing flowers seemed fine, but she would need to get them into the ground soon. For the moment, she nourished them with the Force and they seemed content.

"Do you wish to aid me in planting?" she asked, brushing her lips against his temple.

He made a rather pleased sound when she brushed her lips there. He never thought he was much of a farmer, but he remembered enough that he'd be of some help to her. "I'd enjoy that very much. In fact, I think it's just what I need after all this training."

"When it was needed, I did as much growing of staples as needed on Arrakis," Arha said, easing herself up and offering him a hand. "It was difficult with the heat, but my cave home was moist enough for a few rarities."

Gratefully he accepted her hand, and stood up, pausing before to brush off his pants off any grass. "You didn't happen to find any of those rarities here did you? I'd be kind of curious to see what they were."

"I did not see any from my explorations this day," Arha said. Once he had brushed himself off, she smiled and began walking slowly toward the entrance. "I have not run into dry sections of this place yet. It is...very wet in this place so far. Perhaps there are different environments further on?"

He followed alongside her at leisurely pace. "Possibly, we haven't exactly made it a priority to explore this section of the ship have we? There could be a lot we haven't seen yet."

However they hadn't even mapped out far more vital areas of the ship yet so he doubted the crew would be up for a concentrated effort in Hydroponics just yet.

"Such is true and will be a pleasing the to explore," Arha said. "It is well that I have, at most, finally acclimated to this ship. It made me ill at first, in the beginning, but I cannot make this place any more like my desert, so...adaptation was a necessary thing. Such was true, as well, to my introduction to the Force. I think I have adapted well to each new circumstance. I do wonder about the long-term implications for both."

Her plantlings and seeds clustered around her, faintly glittering behind their Force bubbles. It was good exercise, but she was tired. It was still an effort to pick much up with the Force, though she could take on the mental effort of contacting Kyle's mind with no problem. She surmised it was because of the type of injury she had done her mind and the specific stresses of pulling the Ohm ships in the manner needed to send the hurtling. It had truly taken all of her willpower and every ounce of what she had learned.

Reaching out in the Force he assisted with the seeds a little. She could complain to him all she liked about it, but he could only watch her push herself so much before he started to worry. "You have adapted well. A lot better than some of us in a way. None of us had to grapple with learning how to use the Force, and you've come a long way with that. Especially considering you don't have it in your universe."

"It helps when it is a gift," Arha said, her face bright with a smile. "Such makes one appreciate the moments without its comfort. This is what it is, a comfort, and the knowledge that you are not alone. It is a treasure, the Force."

He always enjoyed hearing her talk about the Force like this. It helped him appreciate it again instead of just worrying about what would happen if Vader or someone like that started to influence some of the younger Jedi. She was right it was a gift, and sometimes people would abuse that, but that didn't mean it was any less of an amazing gift.

"Remind me to steal some of this to use on my future students."

"You do not need to steal," Arha said with a laugh. "These are words for sharing." She enjoyed the stroll, the stretching of her legs, and deliberately walked in a manner that would get the full use out of her movements. She was still working on toning her muscles--mental and physical--back into peak performance. Such things after an injury such as those she had experienced took more time than usual, even for one with her abilities.

To be overeager in her activities was to invite risk, though she pushed herself without much in the way of mercy.

"But it's not as much fun to just borrow." He did his best to pout, but as usually happened when he tried this he failed, and broke out into a smile. It was hard not to around her.

"Stealing denotes jealousy, jealousy denotes a desire to possess," Arha said, clearly teasing. "To avoid such negativity, sharing is encouraged." She nudged him gently, leaning into him. "Fun associated with such things is considered deviant." She tipped her chin to glance up at him. "Are you deviant, Kyle Katarn?"

"Only a little bit," he said as he leaned in to give her kiss because if that wasn't an invitation to do so he seriously needed to get his ears checked.

"Good. A little deviance suits. If one strains too hard to be perfect, one loses sight of much of the qualities that keep one human." She kissed him back, laughing into it, with her arm lazily around his waist.

"I would rather stay human, one cannot deny what they truly are. Balance has always been the key to peace," she murmured.

Kyle smirked mischievously. "Hmmmm maybe I need a little bit more deviance then. Just to make sure I'm staying balanced of course."

"Perhaps," she teased. "I think I have learned a great deal of that from my own training with the Bene Gesserit. Balance, such a thing has come from my Jedi."

Oh Kyle could play this teasing game, in fact he'd heard a rumor he was quite good at it. "Now I'm starting to think I joined the wrong order. I know it's a sisterhood, but do you think they'd make an exception for me?"

"You could never take pass the Agony, my Jed-Eye. Such would kill you even with the Force, I think," Arha said, her voice serious, yet the serious diminished in an instant. "But, there are men trained in Bene Gesserit techniques up to the point where, had they been of the opposite gender, they would have been made full Sisters." Her expression was decidedly amused.

"We have the time, no? Do you wish a lesson, Kyle?" The nudge through the Force was light as a feather, with the echo of unvoiced laughter.

"We do have the time, so yes I'd like a lesson. That is if you feel up to teaching an old dog like me new tricks." He was genuinely curious to see what he could learn from her Bene Gesserit teachings. Maybe it would be something he could pass onto the other Jedi.

Tobias was quite a bit happier since the hydroponics discovery. He enjoyed having a place that was at least somewhat close to his natural habitat, but without the temporariness of the Sensorium. Plus, now, he could hunt to supplement his glop rations.

He folded his wings and dove down, snatching up a mouse-creature disturbed by the woman not far away.

She watched the hawk snag his prey, smiling at the balance. Even in this place, there was prey for hunters to keep the population strictly in check. She did not fear anything in this place, for she was adept and putting forth a nonthreatening demeanor, and did so at this moment.

She enjoyed watching the animals that were so different from her own dry and barren desert. No Mouad'dib mouse in this place--it was too moisture rich, no little scorpion with his poison tail, either. The hawk was the closest thing to a flying predator that she was able to identify as close to those in her own Universe.

"Well caught, little man," she murmured. "Well caught."

< It's better than the glop in the cafeteria. Beaks just aren't made for that stuff. Sensorium mice don't cut it either. > he replied.

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< It's better than the glop in the cafeteria. Beaks just aren't made for that stuff. Sensorium mice don't cut it either. > he replied. <And, thanks. >

"I would think anything would taste better than glop," Arha said with a smile, taking the fact that this bird was apparently a crew member in stride. "Do the mice here taste decent at least?"

It had been a while. She hadn't seen Arha since their engagement with the Ohm and Asuka wasn't sure she'd wanted to. She'd kept trainig and kept flying, but she hated herself for it. She hated that she'd been the one to get hit. She'd hated that she'd had to be protected. It rankled her. Then again, everything about the ship did. Just being here was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. She was just one more person in a sea of people and no one seemed to care that she really was special. At least the hydroponics bay reminded her of home.

She stopped short as she came into a clearer area and found herself looking at Arha. She stopped for a moment, scuffing the earth with a foot. She genuinely liked the older woman, even if she hated being treated like a child sometimes. She raised her hand in an attempt at nonchalance. "Hey, Arha."

"Hello, Asuka," she murmured, tilting her chin slightly as the girl popped into the clearing. "Do you wish to come sit?" Her little plantlings bobbed a bit as she grinned and patted the ground next to her.

Asuka hesitated and she twisted her hands in the cloth of her dress for a moment. She wanted to sit down, but her pride was still stung. After a pause, she shrugged and walked over, affecting a loud, careless voice. "Sure, why not?"

She plopped down and sprawled out, staring up at the artificial sky, the greenery and the plants. Some of it was different. Some of it wasn't. It still reminded her of the green and blue planet that had been home. "Guess we showed the Ohm who's boss, huh?"

She wasn't about to mention her getting shot up. Or the fear that had gripped her. She'd almost frozen up.

"I believe that we showed them our spirit," Arha said easily. "That we are not to be dismissed and though they may wound us, we shall keep fighting. You did well, Asuka, and I would not take another on my wing."

Her blue-within-blue eyes found Asuka's face.

"This is a true thing."

"Well of course! Without me the whole squadron would be in trouble!"

Not really, but she had an ego to keep pumped up. Besides, this let her deflect the whole "got shot" thing away. Her mood improved, she leaned back on her elbows, grinning. "I think I'll finally get my Eva working again."

"Without you, I would have no one to cover my wing," she said with a laugh. "It is good that you shall get your fighting machine working again. Such will be good in future situations."

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clear the mind & work the earth

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I am so sorry for not tagging quicker. :| Work ate my soul.

Re: I am so sorry for not tagging quicker. :| Work ate my soul.

LJ says you have borked HTML, did you want to fix?

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B'aww, I suck at tagging. >.<;

S'all good!

<3

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