in_sidon_we_trust | Outside of Room 221 and Points Beyond; Saturday Morning [02/02].

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Outside of Room 221 and Points Beyond; Saturday Morning [02/02].

A challenge had been issued. And if anyone thought someone like Sidon would do anything but fully rise to meet that challenge with aplomb and gusto....well, then, clearly, they did not know Sidon. He supposed he could have waited a little later in the day, understanding that it was the weekend and some people (very rarely him!) liked to enjoy not having to be up early for classes or jobs or whatever else they had, but it took a great deal of willpower to wait even as long as he had. After all, each second that passed was an opportunity to lose that challenge.

And that simply would not stand.

Which was why there was a very large Zora at the door of Room 221 that morning, giving it a strong and hearty knock. "Vette!" he called out, before delivering another rhymthmic rapping on the door. "Vette! It is I, Sidon! The Zora Prince!"

She could probably hear that sparkling grin through the door, really.

"You must come quickly! We haven't got a moment to spare!"

[[ for that girl he kinda likes, though feel free to grumble. and NFB for distance after they hit that sweet, sweet portal, natch ]]

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Vette's eyes were actually pretty wide by the time Sidon landed.

"There was a-- it was a-- a thingie!"

Octorok, Vette.

"That was SO GREAT."

"Oh," said Sidon, flicking a little water off his headtail before going to plop down beside Vette and feeling grateful for it; awkward as sitting could be sometimes, it was a welcome way to rest after all of that! And as he sat, he stuck his trident through a nearby bit of sand, propping it up so that he could easily peel off bits with his claws, offering the first morsel out to Vette as he leaned into her a little, "that little thingie? Why, that one was nothing! Not even big enough to swallow you up, Vette! You should have seen the last one I fought whilst I was last in this region."

Really, it would be impossible for them to have come to Lurelin Village without him bringing it up. He'd been angling to do so eventually; she'd just given him the perfect opportunity to segue into it just then.

"I'm actually not quite sure if I've ever told you that story before," he admitted. He had told many people, it was true, but he'd discovered that it wasn't quite as many as he'd thought. Besides, when they started telling stories, he'd tried to stick with more general things, obviously, and then, suddenly, there were...other ways of occupying their time than just stories.

Vette laughed as she leaned against Sidon, taking the morsel of fish as it was offered to her.

"I'm pretty sure I haven't heard that story, no," she agreed. "I mean, besides the snowman warfare at the animal shelter, I don't think I've really heard or seen much of that kind of thing from you." And now she was reaching to poke him in the ribs. "So you need to tell me! Story time, Sidon! Spill it!"

As if he needed much prodding to get the story out of him ever, much less with her. But Sidon laughed at the finger poking into his side, grinning down at her. "Perhaps it was best I'd held it until now," he mused. "So much better to set the scene, when you're actually physically present!"

He took a moment to clear his throat, to allow himself to get into full story-telling mode, which was bound to be particularly good, fueled already by the adrenaline rush of his excellent swim.

"Because it had taken place right here, in this very bay beside us now, so peaceful, so calm and lovely...but not so much when its waters were plagued by none other than the most monstrous octorok that Hyrule has ever known, and, Hylia willing, the most monstrous it will ever know! As large as the very mountains that tower over us in the distance, no one knows for whence it came, but it came with a thirst for blood...and Lurelin fishermen! They were helpless against the great and terrible beast; their spears and swords did little to nick its flesh as it, in its insatiable appetite, sucked up nearly anyone who dared try to defeat it, smashing the homes with rocks the size of boulders!

"The Zora and the Lurelin fishermen have always had a wonderful relationship, as you can imagine; we trade often in our various bounties of the great Hylian waters, so when we heard of their troubles with this foul monster, we simply had to send our very strongest and best. But, alas! Our very strongest and best still proved to be lacking. Even with our superior tactics in being able to fight in the octorok's own element, one by one, our warriors were similarly consumed and digested, one after another, to feed the still hungry beast!

"And that," Sidon paused for a sharp, proud, almost devious sort of grin, "is when they sent me. Sent is perhaps not the best word, of course; when I dedicated myself to the cause that had taken from us so many of our brothers, there was a great uproar, especially from the Elders, that I wouldn't stand a chance, they wouldn't allow for such a thing to happen, for I am the prince, I was too valuable to risk on such an endeavor."

The grin faded slightly into something a bit like discomfort, and Sidon snorted. "As if I was going to let that stop me! Under the cover of night, I made my way down here, so that with the breaking of the next day, I may confront the octorok, no doubt while the Elders wrung their hands and were already designing a monument to accompany my sister's. And perhaps they weren't wrong to have their doubts; so many had tried to conquer the beast, and each and every one of them had failed. But none of them were the Zora Prince.

"I swam circles around that octorok; I volleyed it with endless strikes from my trident, and yet barely made a dent. It struck out with its powerful tentacles, dashed me on the jagged rocks. That was how I acquired this scar, here," he turned his head, ducking slightly, to show her, "on my left headfin. But I didn't let it stop me. I got back up, I steeled my resolve, I charged forward with my trident ready to strike him, right between his very eyes if I could be so lucky...

"...only to be sucked right in to his giant, gaping maw, open and waiting for his next foolishly willing meal. I was now inside the octorok, Vette, swallowed down its gullet as easily as if I were one of these pieces of fish! But if anyone thought being lunch would stop me, well...then those people did not know Sidon! For I still had my trident, all was far from lost. For my trident is sharp and my arms are strong, and the inside of an octorok is much softer than the outside. I pierced through that monster's stomach, again and again, until it finally gained purchase and I could emerge victorious to deliver the final blows that defeated the terror and saved the very village you see so peaceful and quiet today!

"Perhaps not the best story to accompany a meal," he said, a bit apologetically, though he was positively glowing with pride, "but it truly has been one of my finest hours."

He chuckled, slightly, as he amended, "Or several hours, I should say. It was not exactly quick work, fighting one's way out from the inside of the belly of a beast."

Vette was staring at Sidon now, eyes wide.

"It ate you?"

That really did give some indication as to just how massive this thing was, for starters. For another...

"If you ever get yourself eaten again, Sidon, I swear I'll cut that thing open myself and pull you out so that I can shake you! I don't care if it's an octorok or a krayt dragon, you're not allowed!"

... Vette versus a krayt dragon would be pretty rich. Best to not get eaten again, Sidon.

"It isn't as though I intended to get eaten," Sidon pointed out, his smile perhaps a touch guarded now, as he felt that perhaps Vette had sort of picked the wrong part of the story to focus on. Especially when there were parts like him being a hero and being the only warrior out of dozens who was able to defeat the monster. But it hadn't exactly been his only close brush with death, and the latest one, if he didn't count the trek to the shelter during the snowstorm, was...well...

The guard in his smile fell, leaving the expression a little softened and apologetic. "So I regret that I cannot in good faith make any promises in that regard, but I can at least vow that I shall strive to attempt to avoid being eaten again in the future."

Spoken an awful lot like a Zora who was most definitely going to get eaten by something again at some point in time.

Some things just couldn't be helped!

Vette considered that, and then blew out a little breath and snuggled up against him.

"I suppose I can live with that," she decided, and then laughed softly, shaking her head. "I mean, I got eaten by an ancient Sith tomb and it spat me out in a Portalocity terminal, I can't really talk, can I?"

Not reeeally, Vette.

Hey, if it helped support Sidon's case, he was more than willing to just accept that.

Especially if snuggling was involved. He chuckled a little, wrapping an arm around her to aid in his own contributions to said snuggling while offering her another piece of fish with his other hand. "That's correct," he said. "And if you reserve the privilege to go digging me out from any beast that may have the foolish notion to attempt to consume and swallow me down, then I simply must insist that I should be able to go tumbling after you should any errant portal decide it wants to snatch you up and whisk you away somewhere else again."

Vette hummed as she leaned against him, wrapping her lekku around his arm and resting her head against his side.

"I was about to argue that there's no way of knowing where those things might leave us, but I guess trying to beat up something that's eaten you to get it to spit you out is probably about the same amount of risk," she admitted with a laugh. She was silent for a few moments, and then she added, "You're so brave. There's just... just so much of you that you give to others without question. There are a lot of people out there who could learn something from that."

She left off the 'myself included.'

Didn't figure that would fly, here.

That would barely get off the ground, really. There was a difference between brave and bravado. He had the latter in spades, but she...well, anyone who could have been through what she'd gone through, experienced what she had, and still come out in the end to be the person Vette was today? Sidon didn't know a whole lot about it, no, but he had bits and pieces here and there that weren't difficult to put together, and he knew enough to know that rising above all of that took guts.

And he would absolutely refuse to hear otherwise.

But, for now, he just chuckled a little, tilted his head toward hers. "Well, there's an awful lot of me to give!" he said "It's be a terrible shame to keep it all to myself. But, speaking of giving," he leaned in a little bit, a sort of nudge, "I do believe it's your turn now."

Vette glanced up at him, smiling a slightly puzzled smile at him.

"My turn?" A beat. "For a story?"

Well, they did have a running deal going when it came to trading them, didn't they?

And Sidon nodded, smiling back. "A story for a story," he said. "It's been a tragically long time since we've done an exchange, really, and you've made it abundantly clear that your time as a Scottish duck doesn't count. And I believe it should go without saying that the story, naturally, has to be similar in nature, in that it won't be a tale as much about Twi'leks in general, but, rather, one specific one."

And he gave Vette a tiny nudge, just in case he needed to be a slight bit clearer.

Vette's breath caught just the slightest bit at that. A story about her? About her? But none of her stories were especially heroic.

... Or happy.

She fell quiet for a few moments, scrambling for words. At a loss.

"Let's play a game," she suggested, all of a sudden. "Two truths and a lie. I'll say three things about me, and you tell me which isn't true."

Sidon was thoughtfully quiet himself at that pause, at the shift in focus, at the faint feeling of something dropping into his stomach like a piece of bad fish. Everything had been going so wellcharging forward without slowing down to see much where he was going?

It wasn't an unreasonable request, he felt. But a difficult one? He supposed he could understand that.

But he did rather wish it wasn't so difficult.

Still, he smiled, as he nodded, hand to his chin to emphasize his thoughtful look. "A game, you say?" he mused. "I do enjoy games, and I'm actually familiar with that one, as well! But if I say yes to this proposal, I must warn you. I'll not let it absolve you entirely from a story, you know. You'll still owe me one, though it can wait...for another time."

"That'll give me a chance to think of a really good one," Vette replied, smiling crookedly. "You've got me at a disadvantage, I bet you've had your battle on your mind since you thought of coming here in the first place."

She tilted her head a little.

"Two truths and a lie, then," she mused, drawing the words out. "Okay, I have them." She squared her shoulders. "I've been in jail fifteen times. I have three sisters. I've done work as a hired assassin."

You wanted her stories, Sidon. This was how she let you know exactly what kind of stories Vette had to offer.

"Which is the lie?"

It wasn't as if Sidon couldn't guess what kind of stories they were likely to be; he just also, perhaps somewhat naively, figured there would still be a few good ones in there somewhere.

The idea that there might not be any after all was just...unfathomable.

"I'll concede to you that point," Sidon allowed, in regards to his own story, especially since he'd pretty much had that battle on his mind all the time and took every opportunity he had to tell that story. "So you'll have time. However long you need..."

Because there had to be a good one in there somewhere; he simply refused to accept otherwise.

"And as for the game, let me see..." And he settled in to consider it, carefully, looking to Vette thoughtfully although he knew he wasn't likely to find any clues there in her face. And he really was trying to think, too, very hard, and rather hating the fact that it wasn't easy for him to parse it out. He should be better at this. He should know more about her...

Well, he told himself, giving himself a little of the encouragement he was so insistent on giving others, he did know the things to make her happy. That was never a bad start...

...but not even knowing for sure how many sisters she had? He so desperately wanted to get this right; he'd hate to get it wrong, but he answered with confidence as if his mind wasn't shadowed with thick and heavy stormclouds of doubt. "I believe," he said, squaring his own shoulders now, "that the lie is in how many times you've been in jail. Numbers tend to be details that can be made the most arbitrary, and that number in particular seems rather," high, "particular. I imagine that, at one point, one finds themselves not bothering to keep track. I can tell you precisely how many giant octoroks I have conquered, but I'd be hard-pressed to be truthful on how many lizalfos have suffered my trident."

"Ha!" Vette gave a little laugh, shaking her head, "totally wrong! Six times on Nar Shaddaa alone."

She said it like it was a point of pride. Really, considering the fact that she was sitting here enjoying the sunshine and a good meal with a handsome prince, it almost certainly was.

"Care to try your luck again? Sisters or assassinations?"

Well, she'd laughed and actually didn't seem to mind that he might have gotten it wrong, so Sidon felt a little bit better about that much. And that a good number of them were on Nar Shaddaa, a place that hadn't exactly seemed like a particularly kind and lovely place in the bits and pieces he'd picked up about it so far. If one was to wind up locked up somewhere, six times alone, that did seem like the type of place it would happen.

"Then the sisters one," said Sidon, with barely a beat between her prompt and his response, because he really didn't need to think about it. "Again, with these sorts of games, the lie is much easier to make when involving a number. I've gotten Master Skywalker on that one before."

And he believed without a shadow of a doubt that Vette could have been employed as an assassin. Clever, competent, fierce. She knew her way around weapons and enjoyed using them. Around when they'd first met, she'd told him how she'd sought out artifacts stolen from her culture to return them to their rightful owners. And he could only assume she hadn't had the easiest time getting from who she was when they were hatchlings to who she was today. It didn't take a very long stretch of the imagination, really.

It was true; Vette's line when it came to killing was more or less drawn at how good the pay was, and how badly somebody needed to be dead.

"The sisters one," she agreed, smiling crookedly. "I have one sister. Tivva."

And the pang at saying her name stayed in her chest, out of sight, where it belonged.

"That was fun. I'll have to come up with some good ones that aren't numbers for the next time, huh? Really give you a challenge."

And Sidon laughed a little, balling up his fist and punching it with an air of consternation. "Ahh, I have revealed my strategy far too early in the game! I shall have to find myself another clever trick to aid me in my pursuit of the correct answer, although it did not serve me as well as it could have with this one. I'd offer my own for you to guess, but I'm absolutely terrible at this game. I have such a difficult time thinking of any good lies."

Or any lies, really...

"It's because you're so wholesome," Vette teased. "C'mere, make up for it with a kiss."

Any excuse for more kissing, okay?

"I'm pretty sure you could make up for just about anything with a kiss," she added, more or less confirming what the narrative had said.

And Vette could have convinced a kiss out of Sidon on far less than an excuse like that, too. So she was absolutely getting that kiss, before he grinned at her, staying close, because there was absolutely going to be another kiss to follow.

"Just about anything, you say?" he asked, in a voice fueled by thoughts that might not be so terribly wholesome after all (except that it was still Sidon, so, actually, really, the kind of were). "I shall have to keep that in mind."

As if he'd ever planned on doing anything he'd ever have to seriously make up for. And there was that other kiss. They were probably falling wretchedly behind on their kisses after their little story break, after all.

See? He could definitely make up for anything with a kiss! Vette couldn't help but melt against him, after all, her arms twining around him as far as they could reach.

... Which wasn't far.

"Of all the girls," she murmured against his mouth, "from all the worlds in the multiverse, how is it I was the one who got to be this lucky?"

This was a mystery that would forever baffle her.

And how quickly any sinking feeling that Sidon might have felt earlier came soaring back up with just a few kisses and a few words, and he shifted a little, whatever was needed so that he could easily rest his forehead against hers. He grinned with the swell of pride he felt, a pride he didn't think he'd really quite earned, because, for him, he hadn't done anything special, he'd only just been doing what he truly felt she deserved and should have...

...though he supposed the pride came from the feeling that went along with knowing he'd been doing it just so well, even with the missteps.

"Perhaps," he proposed, "it is not your luck at all in play here, but rather mine, as I must say, I cannot help but absolutely marvel over the fact that I should be so fortunate as to right here, right now, with someone as incredible as you, Vette. Or it could be an instance of both of our luck working in conjunction with each other, because I cannot imagine that one individual person could be as auspicious as I feel when I think about how we've found each other."

Really, Vette. You expected to say something like that to him and not get something like that in return?

Vette bit her tongue when she realized that her knee-jerk reply was about to be, 'Yeah, but why me?' Knew by now that there wasn't an answer out there that would ever make sense to her anyway, and didn't want to make Sidon worry that he wasn't trying hard enough to make her feel wanted, when that wasn't the issue at all.

"Auspicious, huh? Well, that is fancy." She smiled and settled in, idly taking a bite of her fish. Chewed thoughtfully. Swallowed. "Auspicious."

And here she was just lucky.

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