Anakin had been kind enough to give the girls a ride to the Senate, although Ahsoka suspected he was using them as an excuse to see Padmé. She wasn't going to complain about convenience though. She and Barriss were walking through the halls of the Senate towards where Riyo's office should be, greeting various Senators with appropriate reverence and bows of the head, returning salutes from clone troopers of the Coruscant Guard, and waving to a small class of school children and some of their parents being taken on a field trip (Mommy, look! A Jedi!). The building, as well as most of the galaxy at the moment, had an air of darkness surrounding it, probably due to the war, but it was calmer today, slower, and while not brighter it was less a bloodthirsty maelstrom swirling about them. Finally reaching their destination, with the Togruta Padawan knocking on the door. While she was looking away Barriss tried her best to do some last-minute de-wrinkling of her clothes (it didn't help much, but it did help some) and pulling her head covering straight as it had gotten slightly crooked. She was thankful the windows were rather reflective today.
"Enter!" came the melodious accented voice that made the Mirialan's heart flutter. Ahsoka opened the door and found the Pantoran Senator Riyo Chuchi in a disheveled mess; hair pushed back and clumped from where she had been grabbing it in frustration, empty or half-drunk caf cups strewn everywhere, the desk buried in and surrounded by flimsiwork, with at least seven different screens projecting wildly different charts and graphs, and a few caf stains on her mid-thigh length maroon skirt. There was zero indication of where the polka music was coming from. Riyo, for her part, saw the Jedi pair and her eyes widened. "Karabast! That's what time it is?!" Barriss no longer had a crush. She was now thoroughly in love, and she wanted nothing more than to sit Riyo down, rub her shoulders, and do anything she could to make the Senator's living hell easier.
"I mean," Ahsoka started, having a vastly different reaction from Barriss to the utter chaos surrounding them, "if now isn't a good time-"
"No! No!" Riyo shooing the idea away, "If it isn't now, it'll be never. Besides," she stood and stretched her back, pushing her chest forward and inadvertently nearly causing Barriss to faint, while Ahsoka cringed at the sounds of what seemed like Riyo's entire skeleton cracking at once, "I really do need to take a break and my last intern seems to have run away." She tossed her head to the side and popped a few vertebrae in her neck, finally relaxing into a state that almost seemed to not be in pain.
"What is all this?" Ahsoka asked in growing horror.
"I have 'volunteered,'" she made air quotes around the word volunteered, "to be on or head at least fifteen committees, there's another spending bill coming up about buying even more clones instead of trying to enter peace talks, an insane debt consolidation plan that will only raise interest rates even higher, kriffing hell I feel like I'm one of maybe twelve people in this gods-forsaken building who actually does their damned job!" With every word her voice grew more desperate, and she ran her fingers through her hair. Snapping back upright, she took a few very deep breaths to calm herself, "I really need this lunch break. Do one of you mind driving my speeder? I think I'm going to have a glass of wine with lunch… or three."
"I volunteer!" Ahsoka smiled, taking the ignition fob with the Force, causing Barriss to mildly panic.
"Ahsoka! We're not supposed to kill her!"
"I'm not a bad driver!" Ahsoka declared in a huff. "I'm the only one too young to drink, I'm more than happy letting you two have a bit of fun and being a designated driver." The Togruta was absolutely beaming. How the hell she managed to get a license for a tricycle, let alone a speeder, was beyond Barriss's ability to fathom.
Riyo ignored the bit of bickering, taking note of her own appearance, "We will need to make a quick stop at my apartment though, I'm a disgusting mess. There's no way they'd let me in looking like this. It shouldn't take long, just a quick shower and a change of clothes."
"Oh, yeah! That shouldn't be a problem at all," Ahsoka assured her, and thus the three left the office, with the Senator dismissing her guards for the afternoon.
"Senator?" Barriss asked, speaking slowly and carefully to not stutter out of nervousness, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Riyo returned a half-smile, a genuine smile that made the Mirialan Padawan's stomach do cartwheels, "I have two Jedi with me. I think I'm the safest girl on Coruscant right now." She turned to face ahead again, leading the pair to the garage complex as she and Ahsoka continued to chat, while Barriss continued to look around to scan for potential danger, and definitely not to avoid gawking at Riyo's swaying hips. Rounding the corner, they ran right into another bedraggled Senator.
"Lux?" Ahsoka asked.
Bonteri nearly jumped out of his skin as he snapped to attention and smoothed out his hair, "Ahsoka!" he returned, "It's great to see you again! I, uh, I was just going to grab something to eat. W-what are you doing here?"
"Same, actually. Riyo invited us to grab lunch together."
"Did you want to come as well?" Riyo smiled, "I'll need to run home first." She looked him up and down, inspecting her colleague's rather haggard less appearance, "You should be fine though."
"Eh, uhm, sure!" he stammered, "We can take my speeder!"
"Dammit," Ahsoka swore under her breath, disappointed that she wasn't going to be driving, while Barriss was silently thanking every deity she could think of. "I still call the front seat!" she declared, "It makes sense, a Jedi and a Senator in the front and a Jedi and a Senator in the back."
Was she doing this on purpose? Barriss swore she was doing this on purpose. Did Ahsoka know? How could she know? She hadn't said or done anything to indicate an attraction to Riyo that she knew of! Wait, Togrutas were a predatory species; COULD SHE SMELL HER HORMONES?! "I agree," she nonetheless replied calmly, she would have to thank her Master later for forcing her to take those acting classes, "it would be, at least marginally, safer for the Senators." Riyo smiled. It would not be much safer at all if one of those Jedi passed out because she couldn't handle being around cute girls.
They found Senator Bonteri's vehicle, a small, enclosed boxy thing he insisted wasn't a cheap fossil, it was "classic," something which Ahsoka seemed to verify by excitedly going off on the mechanics of it. He relaxed a bit when she went on her tangent about this or that transmission. He knew absolutely nothing about vehicles except how to make them into bombs during the insurgency to liberate Onderon and was secretly praying she wouldn't call his bluff.
They each piled into their respective seats, only for Barriss and Riyo to discover that the back did not have any seatbelts. "Oh, right, sorry!" Lux apologized, "I haven't gotten around to reinstalling the seatbelts back there yet. I don't usually have people back there, so I forgot."
"It's fine!" Riyo assured him with a laugh, "Just don't do any flips!"
Lux laughed and started the engine while Ahsoka kept stealing glances towards him for the entire ride. Riyo leaned back into the seat and closed her eyes while Barriss was looking out the window on the Senator's side to… scope out any snipers, yes. Her eyes were definitely fixed to the window, not those adorable little hands, the thin arms they were attached to or the cobalt blue thighs they were resting on. Absolutely not. After just over fifteen minutes they pulled into the Senate Apartment Complex. Riyo had apparently just dozed off, and Barriss gently woke her with a light shake of the shoulder, imprinting the feel of said shoulder into her memory.
"I'm awake!" she lied, "I'm awake. Where, oh, right, apartment."
Ahsoka didn't hide her laughter, "Want somebody to carry you?" she teased. Now Barriss knew she was doing it on purpose.
Riyo shook her head, "No, no, I should be fine." They exited the vehicle and stood in near silence for the lift ride up. The Pantoran Senator scanned her retinas and unlocked the door, with the two Jedi and human Senator following her inside. "I'll be quick, make yourselves at home!" she offered before ducking first into what was presumably her bedroom and then the refresher with a new outfit in hand.
Lux sat down on the couch, eyes following Ahsoka as she walked towards the windows. Barriss, for her part, sat next to Bonteri and held her face in her hands, trying to calm down. She was a Jedi; she was a Jedi! She should know better than to be fawning over a woman, especially a Senator! She was better than this! "Attachments are absolutely forbidden!" she thought, reminding herself, "This is why Aayla and Anakin are knights while you're still stuck as a Padawan! Stupid Barriss! Bad Barris! Bad! You'll never be good enough to pass the Trials like this! Worthless, stupid, failure!" She choked back a sob, "Even if you did flunk out or get kicked from the Order, what makes me think she would ever even be interested? Stupid, miserable, failure. Stunted, defective, idiot."
"Dammit!" Riyo shouted from the refresher, causing all three heads to turn. She stormed out of the fresher and back into the bedroom with her black and purple dress half undone, causing Lux to look away in embarrassment while Barriss's eyes went wide as she blushed a much darker shade of greenish yellow. "I can't reach my zipper."
"I'll help!" Barriss offered, just a hair too loud, causing her to internally cringe.
"That would be great, thanks!" Riyo replied, waving her into the room.
"Do not start shaking," she told herself, "Do not start shaking. Just go in there, don't look at anything, zip her up, oooooh, BAD BARRISS!" Entering the bedroom, she saw Senator Chuchi sitting in front of a sleek, black, stained wood vanity set on a small, matching padded bench with bright pink seat cushions, and putting in earrings, her golden headpiece sitting on a small mannequin head to the side.
"I'm really sorry," the Senator apologized.
"Oh, it's no pleasure, I mean! Erm, my problem, I- uh," Barriss babbled, trying to find the right words, prompting Riyo to laugh, "I'll do it."
Riyo was still giggling, "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Barriss replied, seeing her reflection in the mirror she knew her face was one torn between terror, anxiety, and a twinge of desire. She had to mentally slap herself for getting so worked up over something so incredibly stupid. She stood behind Riyo and hesitated for a moment, "I'm going to get the zipper now," she said, alerting her, and herself, of the impending contact. "Just look straight ahead, think nothing," she told herself in her mind, reaching up two shaking hands to the zipper on Riyo's back. "Just think nothing, look straight ahead, focus only on the task at hand, pay attention to noth- she's not wearing a bra. STOP IT!" She quickly zipped up the dress and backed away, taking a few deep breaths to try, and miserably fail, to calm down.
Senator Chuchi, seemingly none the wiser about Padawan Offee's condition, glanced at her golden headpiece and shook her head, opting not to wear it, and stood up, spinning around to face the Jedi, "How do I look?"
"You are absolutely beautiful," Barriss replied before she could stop herself, "I, eh, I, I mean, I uh, th-th-that's not what I-"
"Aww! Thank you!" Riyo replied, rewarding Barriss, perhaps unintentionally, with a twirl, before sliding on a pair of heels, "Let's go!"
Barriss simply nodded, not at all trusting her tongue right now, and followed her back into the living room and out the front door. Bringing up the rear with Ahsoka, the pair hanging back an extra few paces to speak. Ahsoka leaned in and asked, "Barriss? Are you alright?"
"Yes," Barriss replied stiffly and robotically, standing unnaturally straight, and defaulting to regimented diplomatic training in lieu of honesty. "Why do you ask?"
"Your emotions are all over the place, and your nose is bleeding." Ahsoka replied, worry evident in her voice.
Barriss silently prayed for the swift and sweet release of death.
Adi Galia walked down the halls of the Senate, her eyes peeled, for other Jedi in particular. As the Council's liaison to the Senate, her presence was hardly noteworthy, in fact it was less noteworthy than Skywalker's, and he was there almost every single day he was on Coruscant. As she passed by Amidala's office to see Captain Typho outside on a nearby balcony, smoking a cigarette, while hearing very loud moaning from inside while sensing Skywalker's signature in the Force, she could swiftly figure out why. She was hardly to report him to the Council though… she wasn't supposed to be here at all today. This was personal errand that the Council absolutely could not find out about.
At this point, she could have found Mee Deechi's office blindfolded, so it hardly took her long to get to her destination. She knocked on the door and was bidden entry. She did so and swiftly closed the door behind her.
"Ah, Master Jedi!" he replied with his smarmy voice, "It truly is a pleasure to see you again."
Adi nodded once, "Senator."
"So, are you here for business or…" he eyed the door, then the windows, "business?"
She sat down in front of him, her hands fidgeting, feeling not unlike when she was a misbehaving youngling sat down in front of Master Yoda for a lecture. The Jedi Master reached into her cloak and pulled out credits, 150 in all, and placed them on the desk, "Do you have it?" she asked, desperation and hunger in her voice.
The Senator smirked, taking the money and sliding it across the desk to himself, proceeding to carefully start counting it. Slowly counting at that, she was certain he was doing this just to toy with her. "Well it seems you have it all, this time." He reached down into his boot and pulled out a small bag, filled with bright orange Sansanna spice. "Enjoy. Just, not here. You know how it is."
The Jedi snatched the bag of drugs and bid him good day as he sat jangling the credits in his hand. Normally he'd have charged 200 credits for the kind of spice he was dealing, but she was good eye candy, better than most of his customers anyway, and he was still making a tidy profit. He made a half-mocking wave as she all but fled the office.
She had to stop this at some point, she should be reporting Deechi for abusing his office and for peddling illegal drugs, but it was just so good. She rounded the corner and dove into an unoccupied supply closet, opening the bag. She had to get a hit, just a small one, then she would be good for the trip home to the Temple. "Hardly anyone could blame me, after all," she reasoned, "the stresses of the war are getting to everyone, and now there's a mother-kriffing Sith Lord just wandering around Coruscant, and we can't do shit about him!" She dipped her pinky into the spice and brought it to her nose, sniffing it off the finger and into her system. Instantly she shuddered as she was hit with a wave of euphoria, just like countless times before. It seemed stronger this time, was Mee treating her? Surely, he wouldn't be doing it out of the goodness of his heart, he hardly had one. She was going to quit, someday. Just… not today. She needed this today. It was slowly killing her, and she knew it, but she needed this. "No, you don't," she chided herself, "You never needed this, you WANTED it. Kit does pottery to relieve stress, Obi-Wan knits, Shaak paints and plays with those weird little toy soldiers, you don't need drugs." She hated herself for this. She was a Jedi Master; she should be better than some homeless spice addict in the underlevels. The only difference between them was she had a Temple to sleep in, at least until she was found out, and she could afford the good stuff. She shook her head, wide eyed and now feeling more alert than she had felt in weeks, crammed the bag into her pocket and exited the closet. When this bag was empty, she would quit. She would absolutely quit this time. She was going to quit.
Lux parked at the restaurant Riyo had told him to drive to, opening the door and making his way around the vehicle to be met with mild disappointment when Ahsoka opened the door on her side herself. Barriss, however was slightly luckier in that her Senator had evidently believed it better for the Jedi to open her door for her. As Ahsoka and Riyo stepped forward, Lux and Barriss hung back for a moment to have a bit of respectful distance. "Gods," he muttered, gazing longingly at Ahsoka "she is gorgeous."
"Yeah," Barriss sighed, looking achingly at Riyo, "she really is."
It took a moment for them to recognize what the other had said and they looked at each other. "You have a thing for Ahsoka too?" he whispered.
"Eww no," Barriss answered, "Riyo."
Lux looked ahead at the two beautiful women of their respective dreams, "Want to help each other?"
Barriss stole a glance at the Pantoran a few steps ahead, knowing she should reject the offer. Instead, she smiled and with a nod replied, "If you could."
Entering the restaurant and being seated, Lux across from Ahsoka and next to Barriss, who was across from Riyo. The four opened their menus and the Jedi felt their hearts stop at the prices. Ahsoka took in a sharp breath between her teeth, "Eesh, uh, Riyo? Are you sure you want to pay for us?"
"Ahsoka, it's fine. I promise!"
"I just feel really bad about making you spend that much."
Lux cleared his throat, "I don't mind picking up Ahsoka's bill, and maybe you could get Miss Offee's?" he offered, turning just enough to where the girls across the table couldn't see him wink at Barriss, who blushed and quickly covered her face with the cape of her headdress, faking covering a cough instead.
A sharply dressed Mirialan male with a short goatee and two quad diamonds of tattoos on his cheeks and one on the tip of his nose came out, "Good afternoon, my name is Releniru, I will be your server today. What can I get you started with?"
"Just water," Ahsoka and Barriss replied in unison.
"Honeyed tea, please," Lux answered.
"I think I'll try the Eussal arak," Riyo answered.
"Excellent choices," Releniru replied, writing them down, "and have we decided on an appetizer?"
"Oh, not yet" Riyo replied.
"Very well, your drinks will be out shortly," he gave a short bow before turning back to the kitchen.
When he was gone, Ahsoka gave a small giggle. Barriss furrowed her brow, "What's so funny?"
"Oh, don't play dumb, we can see you blushing," Ahsoka teased. "He is cute."
Barriss sensed a twinge of envy flare up in Lux at Ahsoka calling the waiter "cute," but she waved her fellow Padawan down, "Maybe, but trust me, he's not really my type."
Ahsoka gave her friend a knowing look, humming in fake affirmation, "Just because we're Jedi doesn't mean you can't be attracted to somebody."
"I'm quite familiar with that, Ahsoka," Barriss replied, hoping her friend would shut up, only to realize her terrible, terrible mistake as Ahsoka's smile grew and an evil glint formed in her eye. Time to do damage control, "I mean, it's no secret that Anakin is attracted to Senator Amidala, he follows her around like a lovesick puppy."
Riyo groaned, "Thank you so much for reminding me of that," her voice dripped with sarcasm. "You would not believe how many times I've walked in on them screwing."
Ahsoka's eyes went wide, "Wait, what?!"
Lux hummed in agreement, "You too?"
"Yes!"
"You'd think they'd have figured out how to lock a door by now! They're how old?"
"I really don't want to talk about this," Ahsoka pleaded, here montrals darkening with embarrassment.
"Don't get me wrong," Riyo went on, "Padmé's not bad looking by any stretch of the imagination," Barriss blushed harder realizing the woman she was attracted to was also attracted to women, "but we're on a time crunch for the budget bill! Please get off your desk and get behind it!"
Ahsoka buried her face in her hands, montrals near-black from not wanting to imagine her Master doing anything to do with that, "Please, for the love of everything you consider holy, stop!"
Riyo tossed an amused look towards the pained Togruta, "You're the one who brought it up."
"Not the thing about Anakin! That was Barriss!" Ahsoka cried.
Riyo smirked before looking at Barriss and leaning forward on her elbows, showing just a touch of cleavage, "You're right. So, what exactly is your type, Barriss?"
The Mirialan Jedi felt as if all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. Her mind was consumed by internal screaming, "WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY?!" She could only flounder her way out of answering for so long. "Uhm, well, I uh," she looked to Lux, silently begging for any kind of help. He could only give a barely perceptible shrug. Now she felt a flare of anger and envy from Ahsoka. Did she think Barriss's looking at Lux meant she had a thing for him? He wasn't bad, and she was attracted to men too, but he wasn't Riyo either. Did that flare mean that Ahsoka has a thing for him? "Oh, look there's our drinks!" she squeaked, hating her voice crack but ever thankful to the Force that the waiter had come back at the perfect time to change the subject.
Releniru came back with their beverages on a tray and passed them out, "Here we go ladies, sir, have we made a decision yet?"
"Ithinkweshouldgetthecheeserolls." Barriss stammered out so quickly it was practically a single word, "Everyone else good with that? Cheese rolls? Luminara makes really good cheese rolls, she taught me her cheese roll recipe, I think you'll like the cheese rolls, they're really good. Cheese rolls?"
Seeing what Barriss was doing, Lux nodded in agreement, "Yeah, cheese rolls sound good."
"I'll never say 'no' to cheese," Ahsoka agreed, although she was becoming increasingly worried for Barriss's mental state.
"Majority rules!" Riyo declared with a smile.
Releniru nodded, writing down an order of the cheese rolls as an appetizer, "And will that be with hummus or baba ghanoush?"
Riyo looked around, "Hummus good with everyone?"
Barriss and Lux nodded, and Ahsoka shrugged, "I'm a Togruta, all I can eat is the cheese."
"An appetizer of cheese rolls with hummus," Releniru confirmed, "Alright, it will be right out."
Luminara sat drinking caf in Shaak's quarters, while the latter was working away at her table. "Ah, kriff!" the Togruta Master swore as she cut herself with the modelling knife and sucked on her finger. "Osik, that went deep. I might need to go to the Healers later."
The Mirialan Jedi rolled her eyes, "How often do you cut yourself building your little toys?"
"They are not toys; they are miniatures for a tabletop game!" Shaak protested, "And, not every time."
"You can buy them used."
"Not as fun," Shaak sucked her finger some more, "And I did look into it, but hardly anyone else plays Red Templars for 12th Edition, and they changed the way the models look so now their helmets have beaks again, which I like the look of the beaky helmets, but it means I can't take my old army to any Battle-Axe 50K tournaments anymore, and I sold my old 5th Edition army years ago." She paused, and Luminara stood up to walk over to her, using the Force to mend her finger. "Thanks Lumi."
"You need to invest in gloves."
"Now why would I do that when I have you here?" Shaak teased.
"Because one day I'm not going to heal you when you hurt yourself making your 'miniatures' and I'll let your hands get scarred to hell and back."
"You've been saying that for sixteen years."
"And one day I'm going to keep to it."
Shaak smiled, "As much as I appreciate you being here, I sense you didn't come here to listen to me babble about 50K again or to keep me from getting Master Che's stiches. What's wrong?"
"Can't I want to visit an old friend after nearly dying on a dangerous mission?" Luminara answered innocently.
Shaak raised a brow marking, "Are you seriously trying to lie to a Jedi Master?"
Luminara sighed, "It's nothing to be worried about."
"Don't give me that," Shaak stared up at her standing friend sternly, "tell me what happened. Is it Barriss? Quin? Gree?"
Luminara sighed and took her seat back with her caf, pondering how to breech the subject as she took a sip. Her caf was starting to get cold. "Ack! You idiot! This tea is cold!" The memory bit like the scalding tea being thrown onto her. To this day she couldn't even look at a tea pot without feeling afraid. She stood up to pour new, hot caf into her cup. "It was just a dream."
Shaak knew that tone, "It was about the Bitch, wasn't it?"
Luminara almost laughed, Shaak, Quinlan, and Obi-Wan all privately refused to acknowledge Master Xavros as a Jedi Master, privately only calling her by an increasingly offensive list of titles and euphemisms. "Yes."
"What happened?"
"It was the Tea Incident." Luminara answered, feeling herself being embraced into a hug by Shaak. She buried her face into Shaak's shoulder, "I spent so long trying to figure out why she hated me so much."
"There was no rhyme or reason to it," Shaak assured her in a comforting tone, the same one she sometimes soothed cadets on Kamino with, "some people are just cruel to be cruel."
"Sometimes I worry I make the same mistake with Barriss," she continued, choking out a sob, "I've never beaten her but, sometimes I repeat the same things, and I can never take it back."
The pair swayed with Luminara shedding tears onto Shaak's clothes, "I'm sure she understands you don't mean it, or that something comes out wrong. Have you ever talked about it with her?"
"How?" Luminara asked, "How do I even begin to explain it to her when I barely understand it myself?"
Shaak sighed, "I don't know Lumi. I don't know, but you'll need to at some point. Do you want to stay like this for a while?"
Luminara choked on a sob, "Please." So, they did.
The rest of the lunch went off without a hitch and Lux was bringing the two Jedi back to the Temple after having dropped Riyo off at her apartment after having one, or five, too many. It was some backtracking to go to the Senate Apartments first, then the Temple, then the Senate Rotunda, but he assured them he did not want to have to deal with the image of him carrying a drunk woman he wasn't related or married back to her apartment alone. If a single overzealous photographer caught that it would be a career-ender given the implications, "As well it should be," he had said, "ifI actually did something that heinous, but I wouldn't so I don't want to risk that image being attached to me." Much to Barriss's pleasure/terror, Riyo proved to be a very affectionate drunk, wanting to cuddle the entire drive and mumbling incoherently things that were probably supposed to be sweet nothings but came out as little more than garbled gibberish. Ahsoka may or may not have gotten a holo of it for teasing purposes.
The pair walked towards the residential section of the Temple, and Barriss decided now was as good a time as any to try and hold up her end of her and Lux's deal, "So, Senator Bonteri seems nice."
Another flare of jealousy possessiveness BACK OFF, before it was crushed within the younger Padawan, "Oh? Yeah, he's cool."
"Do you two have a history or anything?"
Ahsoka stopped, crossed her arms, and narrowed her eyes at Barriss, "Why?"
Barriss knew now that Ahsoka was getting the exact wrong idea, but at the very least it showed that Ahsoka was, in fact, quite interested in the man. "I just thought he seemed interested in you is all."
Her expression softened, "Oh, huh. I mean, we did have a bit of a thing going on for a minute," she realized she was talking to one of the strictest and most by-the-book Padawans in the Order, "NOT like a thing-thing, just you know, mild… flirting?"
"That seems nice," Barriss responded.
Ahsoka cleared her throat, "And… we might have kissed on Carlac."
Barriss nearly tripped and fell on her face at that revelation. "Details!" she demanded, "Now!"
"Ok, well it wasn't like a 'genuine' kiss, it was more to get me to shut up since we were trapped by Death Watch and we pretended to be engaged and," Ahsoka's commlink beeped, for which she silently thanked the Force, "hold on." She opened the messages, "Oh. Riyo's drunk texting me, hold on. I might need to talk her out of something stupid.
Blueberry: Bariis is sooooo cute. Shes so shy! Like a little nummy rsbbut
Blueberry: Cute widdle bunny. Hop hop!
Ahsoka: Yeah, she'll open up soon. Stick to the plan, remember?
Blueberry: Ye!
Blueberry: She's a sexy bunny.
Blueberry: I wan her 2 sit on mu face.
Ahsoka: TMI, Riyo. TMI.
Blueberry: Heeeeeeyyyyyy, whats Barrisssss #? I wanna show her somtig.
Ahsoka: Show her what?
Blueberry: Something cute I saw!
"She's asking for your frequency; do you mind if I give it to her?" Ahsoka asked.
Barriss went wide-eyed, "Oh, yeah, sure! No problem. Please do!" she kicked herself for the last sentence, but Ahsoka said nothing of it.
Ahsoka: Sure! It's right here [CONTACT_FILE]
"Be warned, she's very chatty when she's had a few."
"I'm sure I could use a laugh," Barriss assured her, as she put in the details into her own contact information.
Within a few minutes Barriss's commlink beeped.
1 New Message
1 New Conversation
Riyo Chuchi: [IMAGE_FILE_ATTACHED]
Barriss hummed, "She sent me a picture."
Ahsoka snorted, "Let me see it!"
Barriss opened the file and immediately collapsed to the floor. She would wake up four hours later in the Halls of Healing undergoing a brain scan.
Later that evening Ahsoka would text Riyo back.
Ahsoka: Yeah, when you asked me to help set you up with Barriss…
Ahsoka: and we had a plan…
Ahsoka: I wasn't exactly expecting YOUR plan to be "Get hammered and send her a topless pic."
Blueberry: I DID WHAT?!
Blueberry: Oh. My. Moon goddess.
Blueberry: I just checked the message.
Blueberry: THAT WASN"T THE ONLY ONE!
Blueberry: Please just kill me.
Ahsoka: If it helps, I think we can salvage this.
Blueberry: HOW?!
Ahsoka: Well, she must have really liked your pic.
Blueberry: …
Blueberry: Do I dare ask what happened?
Ahsoka: She fainted.
Blueberry: [expressionless face emoji]
Ahsoka: And made a noise somewhere between "dying Taun-Taun" and "depressed balloon."
Blueberry: Kriff me.
Ahsoka: Good news is I think she wants to! [open mouth smiley face emoji]
Blueberry: [expressionless face emoji]