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"Gentlemen," Tony interrupted grandly, as he drew Cal up closer, then shifted to present him with both hands on his shoulders. What they had been talking about clearly had to be put on pause for Tony's incredibly important announcement, "Our young Caliente is desperately in love." That was where Tony left him, unsupported, to step away with the return of his teasing smirk and a small bow of his head, hands innocently tucked behind his back. "He could use some advice. You know, from people who have experience surviving that kind of thing."

Tony's behaviour was a little more complicated to explain than a curious deleon.

Do Jedi get embarrassed? Cal didn't look it so much as he seemed mildly scandalized by Tony's presentation of the situation. Overall, he couldn't say that he was surprised, not that it stopped him from making a face at Tony as the man stepped back before he looked at Echo and Jon, and took a step to the side to take all three of them in a bit better.

"-ouch, you think I'm doing that badly?" he said with an exaggerated wince.

"Better curious than hungry. From what I've seen, the chances of that ever happening are rare- especially when you don't know what to expect of the fauna." Dubious as he sounds, Echo is just glad (?) Jon and the others weren't harmed.

Anything further than that was interrupted by the timely arrival of Tony and Cal. He was in the middle of bringing the mug back to his lips, slowly raising it to where it was supposed to be as Tony spoke trifles. During this, his sunken gaze turned half-lidded, drawing out a long sip moments after the man intentionally left the attention on the young Jedi.

Echo's nose then wrinkled slightly. This kind of thing, huh? He should have expected as much. "Well," the clone started, tone already dry as the now-empty mug in hand rested on top of his thigh. Except he looked at Jon and Tony. "I doubt Cal really needs it, but...go on."

Jon is in a comparable position as Echo when Cal and Tony show up: Occupied with what is left of his coffee. He all but raises a brow at that entrance, then looks over at Echo when the clone speaks his opinion before addressing Cal himself.

"If you really want any advice? Don't listen to everything Tony says." He says before directing a smile teasing flutter of eyelashes over at Tony. "He's already making you question yourself more than necessary."

While it was not a complete surprise that they would use this chance to turn against him, Tony was hoping they would take the invitation to smother Cal with attention so he could make his escape again. He could adapt, though, and lean into this dynamic if it would get them excited. He gave Jon a just as innocent blink in return, dainty hand on his chest for these accusations, and insisted, "I didn't say you were doing badly. It's your first time, I'm trying to make it go smoothly. You're going to go back there and you think you're going to give her the flowers and tell her that thing about the light in the darkness, and she's going to swoon, but I'm telling you, that's just going to make her push you into the ocean. No, you gotta make sure she sees you giving the flowers to someone else." This was delivered with all scholarly confidence, only betrayed by the end with a slow glance Echo's then Jon's way to check how they were taking this and if they were appropriately intrigued and outraged enough to do that smothering.

Cal did his best to keep a straight face as Echo and then Jon responded, turning a look towards Tony, brows arching in expectation.

"Wow, I didn't know going to get a girl flowers for the first time was so complicated," he said, keeping a smile from his face. "Anyway, if you're suggesting I hurt her by misdirection then I think I'm better off with no advice."

The teasing did remind him of the times when some clones would pester each other whenever there was down time away from the heat of battle. It was impossible not to roll his eyes at Tony's attempt to cajole him and Jon into the activity, but it didn't completely keep a smirk from forming in the visible annoyance he displayed.

The response Cal shot off, however, made him snort for once. "Kid's got a point," Echo cleared his throat, acting as if nothing happened. "But maybe you need to do more than flowers." He set the mug back onto the console. "Dinner, maybe. Doesn't even need to be that complicated."

Edited (Dumb quotations marks) 2022-06-20 03:56 (UTC)

"You didn't have to prove me right right away, Tony." Jon remarks with a one sided frown. If Tony is trying to get Jon's attention on Cal that way, he will be disappointed. Such a nonsensical advice is a rather clear indication for an ulterior motive.

Echo seems the matter covered well enough, tho, so Jon offers the remaining half of his coffee to Tony and keeps his attention on the man. "What exactly is your goal here?"

Cal was supposed to be wide-eyed and innocent enough for Tony to have him questioning himself, even if it wasn't for long, and Tony pursed his lips with some begrudging respect that he wouldn't be so easily manipulated, at least when it came to treating Merrin appropriately. The backup plan was falling apart quickly. Still pouting at Cal like the kid had spoiled his punchline, Tony accepted Jon's offered cup blindly, and waved his free hand to insist, "I wouldn't dream of proving you wrong," like he was only being supportive in his efforts.

He was sipping just as impulsively as Echo finally indulged him, leaving him pointing emphatically at the dinner suggestion with an enthusiastic, "Mm!," only to turn to Jon when he had swallowed his mouthful to wonder, "When did you get coffee?" That meant Jon squarely had his attention and it was going to be very hard to pretend that Tony hadn't heard Jon questioning his goal. He did still try, eyebrows raised innocently to ask, "Hm?" His hand was still half-raised, so he could gesture to Echo again, now his most tenuous backup and maybe more viable candidate to shift Jon's focus, and expanded, "Something complicated, though, that's always really impressive. A show of effort. But make it look effortless."

Innocence and idiocy were two different things, and Cal liked to think he at least had common sense to some degree to understand how people would react to things. It wasn't difficult at all to read how the angle Tony had suggested would go, and quite frankly the young Jedi couldn't see any positive outcome for the tactic.

"I didn't think I had to do anything, flowers were just a nice gesture," he admitted as he folded his arms. "Dinner sounds nice, but there aren't exactly many options for that," he said. "And I'm no cook like Greez."

He glanced over at movement behind Tony, smiling crookedly as BD-1 came dashing into the area again, pausing only to borble at them before hopping over to look out the cockpit window.

"Complicated but effortless... If this circles back to the whole bear fighting that you're so obsessed with..." he said as he looked back at Tony.

This was where the clone frowned at Tony, but he leaned back in his seat, trying not to argue over something so trivial. "Whatever is available can still work, regardless," he added, glancing at Cal. "Something practical without the mess is just as thoughtful as flowers."

Strange thing was Echo wasn't reaching when he made the suggestion. He really was speaking from experience. Maybe with a few minor details left vague, but it was the same.

There was a pause. Echo had to think about what was said, raising a hand as if it would automatically stop the conversation. He didn't even notice BD-1 returning to wander around the controls. "-Hold on. Why would Cal need to fight a bear?"

“No one is fighting any bears.” Jon says without taking his frown from Tony. He hasn’t yet finished that one sentence when he gets to his feet and steps over to the man and take his gesturing hand in one of his, aiming to ground some of that obvious restless energy.

With Tony captured, Jon can actually look over to Cal for a moment. “You will figure out what works best.” A sentence he punctuates with a squeeze of Tony’s hand.

That gesturing hand had started to become erratic as Tony looked personally offended that Cal kept calling any efforts he made nice, like that was the goal in a courtship and not just how you treated a waiter. "Merrin needs him to fight a bear," he said with a lot of authoritative confidence for one conversation he had with Merrin a year ago, only for the energy of the declaration and his frustration to stop sparking dangerously as Jon grounded him. Right, okay, he would stop, but he looked to Jon with a brief, anxious plea, feeling cornered and sure he would start biting if the hissing wasn't working, and none of them wanted that.

Considering relationships of such a nature were considered taboo for the Jedi Order, 'nice' was practically leaps and bounds. Cal's half-smile faded a little as he could sense Tony's growing irritation, and he looked at him with some concern. Jon received a thankful look, for more reasonable advice, for helping Tony calm down a little.

The bear thing still sounded rather non-sequitur, but it still sounded completely ridiculous as Tony stated it so, like some strange proclamation. Cal covered his mouth with the back of his hand as though that'd disguise the snort of a laugh that slipped.

And then quite abruptly, the entire shuttle lurched under their feet, feeling like it was going to drop out of the sky. On the control console BD-1 jerked his little head up with an almost sheepish beep before skittering over to leap onto Cal like he did not totally just tap random buttons.

Echo also had his concerns with that statement, releasing some of the skepticism in his expression while Jon anchored Tony where he stood. "...So that just means you'd have to find a bear- "

In the middle of trying to alleviate things, the clone quickly leaned back into his seat after the suddenness of the lurch and the subsequent pull of gravity, spinning around to catch the little droid red-footed. "BD-1!" he snapped, sounding like he was scolding a puppy as he re-situated himself and began tapping what was lit up. "What did I tell you? Never touch the buttons in this section!"

Fortunately for them, everything started up just in time to keep them in the air, the whole vessel roughly shifting to level itself out.

Edited 2022-06-24 03:34 (UTC)

The ship's sudden movement would easily have been enough to knock Jon off his feet, were he not holding on to Tony's hand, turning the previously light squeeze into more of a surprised clasp, complete with a rather high-pitched yelp that betrays Jon's usual tone. Thankfully, no face-planting happens this time around and Jon can mutter some irritated words towards himself while straightening out his own footing. "...Jesus, that was uncalled for."

He huffs, but then turns his attention back to Tony, his expression and tone stern after the drop, but also laced with concern in response to the man's clear anxious behavior. "Who gave you that idea with the bear, Tony?"

While it did sound like Echo was going to graciously play his game again, Tony tipped his head to the side with a grimace at the suggestion, because the conceit was supposed to be that the bear was the issue they were trying to avoid. Unfortunately, gravity was unwilling to encourage this rousing debate on how effective introducing a bear to the scenario would be. Or BD-1, it was hard to tell. Luckily, Tony was fairly well experienced in such a sudden drop, squeezing Jon's hand back as he planted a purposeful foot against the shift, and ready to haul him back up with the other arm out to brace Cal with a slosh of the last of the coffee he still carried.

He watched the droid with some disbelief, then pointed to Echo and his scolding and efficient reclaim of the controls to ask, "Is anyone else turned on now? Is that weird?" With a deep breath, knowing full well no one wanted to answer that, he added, "We should probably punch it, the kids are getting antsy, there's no telling what else he'll do. Do we know where the fuel line is in this thing?"

None of that saved him from Jon's very serious question, and he didn't quite know how to defend himself. He had to try to convincingly explain, "Merrin, it's her whole thing, it's like a hazing thing and she'll eat him if he fails or something."

Edited (sssh) 2022-06-25 18:05 (UTC)

The exploration droid gave a little 'booo~' at Echo's scolding, even as Cal gave BD-1 a look. Not that he could say he was surprised; the little guy did like to push buttons. He straightened up from his own shift in stance, giving Tony a nod and a brief pat on the arm.

BD-1 seemed perfectly content to sit there in the crook of the Jedi's arm, glancing at the others like he hadn't nearly sent them plummeting from the sky. Cal looked over at Echo in apology before checking on the others, but aside from the initial panic, everyone seemed all right at least. "We should almost be there at least, right?"

Cal tried not to roll his eyes at the continued bear conversation. "I don't think they even have bears on Dathomir."

"Any later and we'd still be free-falling," Echo muttered to himself, easily reminded of his Bad Batch escapades while completing the sequence to be sure nothing was missed. He then kept one hand on the steering, sighing as he turned halfway to see if everyone was fine.

A Look™ was shot at Tony, nearly identical to the one he gave BD-1 a few moments earlier. For his sanity, it was easier to redirect energy into other things outside of their previous topic. "If anything spilled, you're cleaning it up."

He was more lenient with Jon and Cal, shooting another glance the droid's way when he 'booed' him. "Nearly," he replied to Cal, acknowledging the unspoken apology. The rest was said for everyone involved. "Won't be too long. Once we land, we'll all be free of each other for five or six minutes. By then I expect we'll get back on track with the flower-arranging."

After quietly thanking Tony with his free hand being placed on the man's upper arm, Jon takes Tony's answer in, then looks from him over to Cal with BD-1 now on his arm and Echo, his frown never quite leaving his face, his lips pursed pensively. Yeah, this doesn't really make much sense. He will have to ask Merrin about that once they return. But for now...

"...right. Let's just leave the bear option for later. We're headed to Sh'Ka for its flora, not to see if any Graq have been hiding away in the city that have avoided being detected somehow." A compromise for now. And yet one that has an obvious undertone of 'Cal won't be fighting any bears.' He turns to Cal for a moment. "Dathomir... Merrin's home planet. I got an impression of it when I visited her dream. Has either of you visited it?" The question is directed at Cal as well as Echo. What Jon has seen has mostly been the cave the Nightsisters lived in. But Merrin had implied settlements for the male population of her species outside the cave. Obviously there were no bears.

Tony took Echo's direct command to deflect to BD with a gesture of the mug down to the splatter of coffee that had made it to the floor, "Yeah, take care of that, would you?," half hoping he actually would to see what other destruction he might be capable of. They could handle it, there was four of them and only one of him, even if Jon didn't seem so sure by the way he was still hanging on. Tony gently extracted his arm to wrap reassuringly around Jon's shoulders instead, muttering, "Echo just needs five minutes to himself, he'll sort out the bear thing that Cal's so worried about." He finished with innocently raised eyebrows, and the hand with the mug up in surrender at Cal, because only one of them had thought it important enough to bring up again and start this problem.

BD-1's little antennae drooped as he contemplated how he'd manage to clean anything up with no handses. Cal gave the droid a pat.

"Yeah, I've been there," he said in response to Jon. "That's how I met her. Plenty enough things that want to kill you over there, terrain included." Bears might've been a welcome thing if they were even common creatures in their galaxy. Probably in some form or another, somewhere, anyway.

"Come on, BeeDee- let's go find something to clean this up, huh?"

The former ARC Trooper rolled his eyes as Tony passed the buck to BD-1, turning to face forward as the man continued to twist his words for fun. "I'll need less than five minutes if you keep this up..." Gruff as Echo sounded, he didn't really mean anything else by it.

His brow creased slightly when Jon asked about Dathomir. "I only saw it when I visited her dream, too. Never in-person," he answered. Cal's reply made the corner of his mouth twitch, casting a brief sideways glance his way before he started wandering off. "So you already have experience?"

Jon makes an irritated little noise, but doesn't stop Tony from putting an arm around his shoulder. He still gets a glance from Jon. "There is only one person on this ship that is worried about bears and it's neither Echo nor Cal." He points out, then nods towards some nearby seats. "Come on. I was going to tell Echo about Frank. Why don't you take over that part and I help Cal. You can have a fresh coffee as well."

The lure of fresh coffee, Tony shouldn't be able to resist.

Cal going with BD kind of ruined the point, and Tony did his best to pointedly widen his eyes at the droid hoping he might understand that he was meant to find his freedom to push buttons once released. In fact, all three of them leaving was also ruining a point, though maybe bothering them enough that they felt like they were the ones that had to escape still got Tony the results he was hoping for. Not the ones he wanted, it turned out, as he slipped away from Jon with a reluctant pout, then expressed his displeasure by ignoring the indicated seats to pour himself against the back of Echo's instead, looking dangerously close to pressing all of those buttons that BD didn't get the chance to experiment with. "Frank's a big lizard who laid eggs in the library. He's very friendly, gets attached easily," he reported, only to continue at a clip, "Have you really never been? Omega makes it sound like you're flying all over the galaxy. We should make a bouquet for her, too, while we're out here. She...deserves one."

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