Last time: They plan to go on vacation.
Now: Kyr, Cien, and Op gather supplies.
Chapter 6- Shopping
"Okay, that's the tents taken care of." Kyr mused as he consulted the list Oppie, Cien and him had put together on their way out from the house. They had left a day and a half earlier than Viran and Sasha so that they could do a little shopping, and also prepare the beach a little for their arrival so that Sasha could be greeted with a properly outfitted vacation. They were at the same large market that Cien and he had stopped at on their first trip to the beach. The market had changed a bit, new vendors, new stalls, but it remained a place to get all manner of supplies.
"We should probably get some groceries." Oppie suggested.
"I also want to get some life day lights." Kyr added.
"What are life day lights?" Cien said, looking at him curiously. Kyr was actually in his armor. He had pushed himself to put it on, and she also had her full armor on since it was fun to walk around as a Mandalorian couple and spook people out. The reminder of that from her had been a way to gently prod him to try to wear it again, and she was glad to see more of her old Kyr back.
"Little twinkly lights on strands of wires." Kyr said, looking around. He had his buy'ce off, as she did. He was carrying it in his left hand as they strolled through the market, looking at wares. He was also holding a shopping bag of some clothing items she had gotten, since she wanted to expand her wardrobe a bit beyond her relatively dark side themed attire.
"For lighting?" She asked.
"No, they just look pretty. Like decoration." Kyr said.
"Oh." Cien said, looking confused.
"This time of the year they'll be really hard to find. And probably really expensive." Oppie added, "you should have gotten them at the sales after Life Day." He suggested.
"Well I didn't know then we'd be going on a vacation." Kyr replied.
"There's a lighting store over there." Cien said, pointing through the crowd at someplace that sold lamps.
"No, they wouldn't have them. We need to find, like, a home goods store, a holiday vendor or something." Kyr said, looking around.
Cien shrugged and just followed along, her attention wandered to a vendor that had many crystals on display, and she paused slightly looking at them.
"Something catch your eye, cyar'ika?" Kyr asked her, noting her overly long glance at the display of crystals.
"Oh, no they're just pretty." She replied, and he glanced at her for using that wording. Describing something as 'pretty' still seemed out of character for her and he smiled slightly hearing it. "I used to have a very large crystal that I liked." She said with a slightly wistful tone.
"What did it look like?" Kyr asked, glancing at the vendor before looking back to her.
She shrugged as she continued walking. "They grew them there in a little empire in the Unknown Regions. Half a meter wide, a quarter of a meter deep, like a small garden of pure clear crystals that caught the light and threw it around the room."
"That does sound pretty." Kyr agreed at her side.
Oppie was walking along as well with a small smile on his face listening to their discourse. He had to admit, there were a lot of times when Cien and Kyr were very cute together. Even if everyone in the market place was looking at them like they were brandishing weapons and threatening everyone as they walked along in their Mandalorian armor.
"I'm going to go over there and grab some groceries." Oppie said, seeing the section where various vegetables and meats were available for purchase.
"Oh, okay I wanted to do a little grocery shopping as well." Kyr said as he and Cien turned to follow.
"Uhh…" Oppie said, brought up short. "For... what?" He asked with a hint of terror in his voice.
Kyr looked at him for a moment. "And what's that supposed to mean vod?" He asked defensively.
"Oh, nothing just…" Oppie paused, swallowing, "you know if you were thinking of making chili again, it uhh… I can handle food this week. I don't mind."
Kyr looked at him, and Cien smirked slightly.
Oppie swallowed uncomfortably. "Well I mean if you do want to cook you're more than welcome to, we can uh, I can definitely help." He offered, glancing around.
"I was going to make pineapple chicken skewers with a chili peanut sauce." Kyr finally stated.
"Oh, that? That was really good." Cien said genuinely.
Oppie looked at his brother dumbfounded. "Yeah that actually does sound really good."
"I do know one or two things I can make okay." Kyr said sheepishly. "We could also do a seafood boil since we're going to be on a beach and stuff," he ventured to suggest.
Oppie blinked a few times. "Sure, both of those sound good. I wouldn't mind learning that chicken recipe." He finally said.
"I can teach it to you, it's very easy." Kyr said with a grin as he went off to go look at pineapples.
Oppie walked next to Cien as Kyr pulled away from them slightly to start inspecting the fruit selection. "So this peanut chicken thing is okay?" He asked her very quietly.
"Yes." Cien said with a slight chuckle. "He made it on the last night of our honeymoon trip and it was very good, and I didn't get sick from it." She said.
"Okay." Oppie replied with a shrug. He supposed if there was a style of cooking that would suit Kyr, it would definitely be skewered meat over an open fire.
"Admiral Sulam taught it to him." Cien further added.
"Ah." Oppie nodded, it made more sense now.
"Op, if the fruit's squishy and has a bunch of flies coming off it, that means it's ripe, right?" Kyr asked, calling over to him.
After getting the groceries sorted out they were laden down with several bags that would see them through the trip quite nicely. As they were walking along, Kyr saw a weapons vendor and stopped, looking at the display of pistols that were visible. The vendor definitely noticed a pair of Mandalorians looking at his shop and looked up at them eagerly as they approached.
"Soo-coo-gar-ee Mandos." The Toydarian said hopefully as they got close.
Both Kyr and Cien stopped short at that weird greeting, as did Op who knew more Mando'a than they thought he did. They looked at eachother then back at the Toydarian.
"Gar Mando'a ori'jete." Cien said with a slight smirk.
The Toydarian just blinked at them as he flew towards them. "So you'rah lookin' to buy weapons methinks?" He said in a harsh and gravelly but exuberant voice that had an accent of Huttese.
"No, I just wanted to ask if there was someplace that sold Life Day lights like those." He said, looking at the lights the Toydarian had put up around the sale sign at the pistol display.
"Oh! You're in luck, I'm the only one here a-bouts that has them, eh?" He said exuberantly. As he went to dig the boxes out from the stuff that hadn't sold after the holiday season.
"They don't seem very functional." Cien said critically as she looked at them. They certainly didn't throw off very much light.
"Yes, but they twinkle!" Kyr said, "you have the kind that twinkle, right?" He asked in a louder voice towards where the Toydarian was digging through the boxes. Oppie was trying to keep from laughing.
"Yes, twenty credits ah box for a one hundred light strand." The Toydarian said as he came out with an armful of the boxes.
"Twenty credits?" Kyr said flatly.
"They ar-ah very nice lights." The Toydarian said as he put the dusty boxes down. "Twinkle, chase, fade, flash, synch to music. You won't find any better here, I promise you thatah." He said, pointing a finger at Kyr.
"Ten." Kyr stated.
"What you think this is a Life Day sale? I can get twenty-five per box in six-ah months when everyone is buying decorations." He said annoyed.
"Fine, fourteen so you can sell them now."
"Eighteen." The Toydarian said.
"Fifteen." Kyr countered.
"Sixteen." The Toydarian said, "And not a credit less."
With a deep sigh Kyr nodded. "And I'm testing all these strands before we go." He added.
"Whata, you think I'm selling ah cheap Life Day lights here?" The Toydarian said.
"Well I know they're not cheap." Kyr said with a harsh look.
"Fine Mando." The Toydarian said, "How many of theseah you want?" He asked, looking between the three of them.
Kyr looked between the other ones. Cien just looked at him incredulously as if he had just sprouted a second head, and Oppie was considering the question, actually. "The more the merrier?" He said to Oppie with a shrug.
"Yeah." Oppie agreed. Cien just rolled her eyes.
In the end all the strands ended up working, two of them hadn't, but the Toydarian had gone through and found the bulbs that were burnt out or loose so they would work in the end. He even threw in the replacement bulbs for free, which was down right generous of him.
Oh and Kyr also bought a blaster too.
"Why'd you buy that anyway?" Cien asked, as Kyr walked along with the bags of groceries and Life Day lights. "You have so many blasters, and all of them are nicer than that one." She observed.
"This, cyar'ika, is a Westar-11. Bigger than the thirty-five and prettier to boot." Kyr said, "I'll get a scope and get it working with the buy'ce, and I might have found my new side arm." He said, drooling at the new weapon.
"But it looks like it's a hundred years old." She said, looking at the dirt and grime it was covered in.
"It is." Kyr said with a smile. "Actually maybe more like a hundred and twenty. These are classics though, still as good or better than anything that's made today. Just needs a little restoration work." He said with barely contained excitement.
Cien looked at him a little sideways, and Oppie chuckled slightly.
"Here, can I see it?" She asked.
"Sure." Kyr said, handing the blaster over. She took the blaster in hand and ran her fingers over the barrel shroud and down to the grip, then all but threw it back to Kyr in surprise.
"What?" He asked as he fumbled a little, taking it back as she handed it back so quickly and vehemently.
"It just has a lot of history to it." She said with a shudder.
"Like what?" He asked, a little worried.
"Just a lot of history." She stated as she walked a little faster back towards the ship.
Kyr glanced at his brother. "What's that mean?"
Oppie shrugged. "No idea."
Review!
