Local Organic Blue Milk (D1 EA, Farmer's Market)

[Yara Suhr]

Yara strolls through the farmer's market on her lunch break, a mesh sack over her shoulder.

Pausing over a display of bright cerulean fruits, she presses her lips together and contemplates. If she bought a carton, would they actually get consumed, or just sit uneaten in the refrigeration unit until they became growth media for one or another of Noventa's indigenous microbes? With one obligate carnivore and three sometimes absent-minded omnivores as residents in the household, it was always a chancy thing. It had taken an effort of will to come out here at lunchtime instead of cracking a bland but convenient rat pack back at the clinic... it's admittedly nice to synthesize some vitamin D directly, though, rather than just consuming it in nutritionally balanced meal packets.

((expecting, but open))

[Cal Arcton]

Most things for the bar, Cal got wholesale. It really wasn't necessary to go to the market to get eggs when you got them delivered by the crate. Still, there were some things that they got little enough of that it was worth a trip to the market. And the milk was looking especially blue today... but that wasn't quite enough to add it to his bundle of goods.

Spotting a familiar face, Cal gave a smile and a wave. "Good afternoon, doc." He greeted her with casual warmth. "It's a fine day to be out and about, wouldn't you say?"

[Yara Suhr]

"Cal," she salutes him with a vague wave. "It's not bad, is it? Hoping not to get any calls to the south continent today, though." She looks over the milk stall, considering. I haven't had blue yogurt in a while... It would go well with some fruit, too.

"I haven't seen any of your people lately, so I assume you're keeping them all in one piece?" she says, lips quirking as she fishes in her jacket pocket for the right combination of credit chits.

[Cal Arcton]

"Ah, I see." Cal's lips twisted. "I take it that means that business has been a little bit too good for you lately?"

Cal grinned. "Yeah, they've been doing pretty well. And it's true. I haven't had a sleepover at your place for quite a while, have I?" He chuckled. "That's all to the best, really. I swear, it takes weeks to get the taste of bacta out of my mouth."

He crossed his arms; his own bag was nearly empty. "Still, I hope your door's still open, if any of us do find ourselves in a situation."

[Yara Suhr]

"No more than usual." Yara shrugs, perhaps slightly ruefully. "But I saw it's still raining down there, and my cold-weather coat still isn't dry from the last time." She hands her credits to the [blue]dairy farmer and tucks a carton of his wares into her bag. "I suppose I shouldn't complain. It's a great deal better than Hoth. But at least Hoth wasn't wet."

Wiping her hand on her bag to dry the slight sheen of condensation that had transferred from the cold yogurt package to her palm, she adds, "Hm? Of course. Your lot may use more bacta than a month's worth of other clients when you come in, but you always settle your debts. And most of you don't squirm."

[Cal Arcton]

Cal grunted. "I'm afraid I missed that one. Signed on just in time for Endor." He gave her a nod.

And then, a moment later, another nod, as they began to walk along. "I appreciate that. And, well, I do my best. But doc..." He flashed her a grin. "Maybe if you warmed up your hands a bit more, I wouldn't even squirm a little bit." He joked.

His expression became suddenly serious. "Ummm... keep your doors open tonight, eh? We've got a do-goodin' request. Could get a bit hairy." His lips quirk. "No pun intended. That probably would have been a lot funnier if you'd heard the context first."

[Yara Suhr]

"I'm a doctor, not a massage therapist. Lucky for you," she says, arching an auburn eyebrow. "If you want warm hands, I suspect you now where to find them, but they won't sew you back together so neatly."

She pauses to look over a stall packed with multicolored flowers in pots. "Doors are always open for real emergencies, Cal, you know that. Half the staff sleep over the shop." Then, tripping over the pun-not-intended, "What context?"

[Cal Arcton]

Cal grinned. "Seeing as you're a doctor, perhaps I should be asking you what sort of treatment is best for burns. I get the feeling that if I continue on this way, I'm gonna be needing a lot of it."

He followed her gaze over to the pots, mentally filing the information away. "Yeah, I know." He said. "Still, while there's a few surprises I like, a sudden rush of wounded doesn't rate the list." He scratched at his stubble. "Some folk are having trouble with Manka cats of all things. Used to be I could hold them off with a pellet gun and a cup of caf. Guess they've been breeding like mynocks since I've been gone."

[Yara Suhr]

The best burns require no after-the-fact gloating, so Yara lets the remark about remedies pass with nothing but a smile. "Manka cats. I heard something of the kind as well. I may have a house call on that account later today, in fact." She tucks an escaped curl back behind her ear, looking a bit more serious. "I don't know a great deal about them, but I didn't realize they were such a threat to sentient settlers. Their numbers have been going up?"

[Cal Arcton]

Cal nodded, even as he walked over to the next stand. He paused to take a look at the product, which was bottles of a sauce that promised to be extra, extra spicy.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Under the Republic, there was a program to keep the population down. The Empire didn't keep it up, and now they're everywhere." He chuckled. "The one time the Empire decides not to kill something, and it ends up being a problem. That sounds about right to me."

He studied the bottle of hot sauce a moment longer before replacing it, shaking his head. "Still, sounds like they've become extra dangerous lately. Maybe something's pushing them out of their usual habitat or something?"

[Yara Suhr]

"Hm. That fits. Sentient pests are the only kind most Moffs showed much interest in controlling," the doctor says with grim humor. "They're invasive, not a native species, I recall?" At least, she's fairly sure she's heard of them on planets other than Noventa. "What could push beasts like that out of their habitat? Someone over-hunting their prey, perhaps?"

She glances around at the leafy vegetables and bright fruits on display all over the market. Noventa's biosphere seemed so pristine compared to many; it was easy to forget that even agricultural colonization could have significant ecological effects.

[Cal Arcton]

Cal shrugged, grinning sheepishly. "About all I know is that from time to time one'd try to sneak onto the ranch and drag off a nerf, so I'd plunk'em with the pellet rifle to scare 'em off. I didn't figure on needing to learn about them once I left this rock."

He shrugged again. "But I haven't heard anything about any new hunting being done. That doesn't mean it isn't happening, but it's somethin'."

[Yara Suhr]

"All it took was a pellet rifle, hmm?" Yara says with a thoughtful half-frown, hooking a thumb through the shoulder strap of her shopping bag. "That doesn't quite sound like the kind of problem that calls for an entire medical team. And yet."

She glances sideways at Cal, quirking an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were a farmer boy. I suppose I should have guessed." After a year on Noventa the corners have just barely started to round off the doctor's crisp, precise Core Worlds accent.

[Cal Arcton]

"To scare one off." Cal said, his expression serious. "It barely hurt it. And I hear they get a lot braver the more of them there are. To hear the farmer tell, it, there's enough that a cannon wouldn't scare them off, much less a pellet gun."

As they slowly walked along, Cal met the raised eyebrow with a grin. "The only crop my family grew was nerf fodder to feed all the nerfs that they raised. But I think farm boy applies just as much to the sons of ranchers as it does to farmers. So yeah, I'll accept the label."

"What about you?" He asked, eyebrows going up. "Big city girl?"

[Yara Suhr]

"Not at all," Yara says in her accent that wouldn't be out of place on the upper tiers of a Core-ward ecumenopolis. "My family has nearly two square kilometers of orchards on Grange, in the Rocantor sector."

She shrugs. "The largest endemic predators on the planet mass less than sixty kilograms, and they feed mostly on small avians, so I can't say I have much experience with a pellet gun. But I can tell a hairy apple from an unripe shimmer peach at forty paces."

[Cal Arcton]

Cal grinned again. "No kidding. And here I was figuring you'd grown up in some vast expanse of ferrocrete, not the family farm. Makes me wonder what else I might have wrong about you." The grin took on a bit of a smirk.

He shrugged, still smiling. "I'd suggest we swap farming tales, but sounds like they were different enough. No fruit for us, just nerf; I don't think I could tell those things apart at two paces." He glanced around. "Don't suppose you've seen either of them around here, have you?"

[Yara Suhr]

"All sorts of things, quite possibly," Yara says with a slight smirk. "But I don't suppose you're an open book, either."

She glances around at the nearby fruit and vegetable stands. "You know, I haven't seen either of those today. But it's too early in the season for shimmer peaches. I don't think I've ever come across a hairy apple here, so I expect they haven't been introduced. I never liked them much anyway; too much trouble to peel."

[Cal Arcton]

"Why Doc." Cal said, smirking. "You almost make me think that you and I should get to know each other a bit better." He flashed her a smile.

But that was just how Cal was, of course. He moved smoothly from giving her a line to looking around with her. "Yeah? I, ummm..." He rubbed his chin awkwardly. "Actually, I don't suppose you've got any suggestions? I've been thinking that I should probably have more fruits and vegetables in my diet. Seeing as I'm getting older and all."

[Yara Suhr]

Yara snorts faintly. "They say people live faster on the frontier, but I don't think it's meant literally. Unless you really do have some big secrets, you can't be much older than me."

She points with an open hand toward a vegetable stand. "Dark, leafy greens are healthy for most omnivores, though. Vitamins, fiber..." She leads the way over and inspects the farmer's produce more closely.

[Cal Arcton]

"Yeah, well..." Smiling ruefully, Cal shrugged. "A few years is enough. I'd wager I've been short more times than you, too. Earlier start."

Cal briefly appreciated the view as Yara leaned way over, but there really was a limit to how much one could hit on a friend in good fun. "I suppose I could change up the menu at the bar a bit." He said, moving forward to join her. "But I mean, it's bar food. About a third of the things we serve have nerf in them."