TCC- 5

Tentacle Covered Chaos

Chapter 5: Day After

<<<Barris>>>

Yawning, the padawan tried to stretch only to realize she couldn’t. Opening her eyes she glanced around-

“Huh, I forgot Poppy was a cuddler,” She thought with some amusement as she relaxed, and her eyes looked around with confusion.

She quickly realized it was her Master’s apartment she was within and started to blush as memories, pleasant ones admittedly, started to come to her. She had… she’d fucked up. Her Master was sure to punish her, it had to have been a test and she’d almost certainly failed it. She took advantage of Poppy, she’d lost control…

“Breath, my Apprentice,” Master Luminara whispered, “You are not in trouble.”

‘Right, breathing, that’s important…’ She hadn’t even realized she wasn’t until she was told to and, as she fell into a familiar pattern, letting the Force fill her… Bariss realized that her panic was rather baseless.

‘Poppy approached me, and Master invited us into her bed… if it were a test, she’d have declared I failed when I accepted…’ The thought didn’t calm her entirely, but it quelled the worst of it and allowed the Force to take care of the rest.

“Always looking for tests,” Master Luminara teased, “Relax, my padawan. Poppy confided a dietary requirement she has, and I felt that you deserved a chance to let your hair down as well.”

“You were quite delicious, for the record,” Poppy said from behind. Barris tensed up for a moment in surprise before the girl hugged her a little tighter, “And you were very filling, I shan’t need another… meal like that anytime soon; though I wouldn’t say no to an early repeat…” The voice was low and desire filled, but not particularly forceful and was, if anything, teasing.

Barris just blushed as the comment finally registered to her.

Master Luminara just smiled and airily said, “Barriss we seem to have quite a voracious ward.”

“Mm, if it weren’t a physiological requirement,” Poppy started with a smirk that Barris only knew she had because it echoed in the force, “I would likely be classified as a nymphomaniac. Not my fault, naturally, because nothing is ever my fault. I am a perfect being that can do, say, and think no wrong and if you happen to disagree take it up with the voices in my head.”

Master Luminara just gave Poppy a flat stare, though Barriss could feel the faint echoes of amusement over the Force. And, honestly, she’d probably be giving her the same look if she wasn’t currently entangled by her.

Poppy giggled a bit.

“Regardless of that,” Master Luminara started, visibly deciding to change the topic, “I have word from the Council that they are going to be implementing shifts for Poppy’s wards to prevent… addiction.”

‘What was there to be addicted-wait…’ Barris paused for a moment before, “Ah, pheromones?” Her Master just nodded. “Us having sex with her was probably a bad idea then, wasn’t it?”

“I can probably answer that,” Poppy replied, slowly releasing Barris from her grasp, “If it were a bad idea you’ll know relatively quickly after you leave my presence, give it maybe two days and if you’ve grown addicted you’ll start experiencing withdrawal symptoms.”

“But suffice to say,” Her Master continued, “It was likely not a good idea either. Poppy showed remarkable restraint for the… desires going through her mind at the time.” The girl had the shame to cough into her hand at that. “But she had those desires anyway. It would have been more wise to get a volunteer willing to undergo a period of being watched under controlled circumstances to ensure nothing went wrong.”

Barris blinked, why was that course of action so clear to them now and not before…

“Pheromones,” Poppy replied, “Now that I’ve had sex and fed, I’ve stopped producing them as heavily.”

‘Ah, I said that outloud.’

Poppy just gave the padawan a comforting squeeze.

“So, are we in trouble with the other Masters?” Barriss asked.

“Not… as such,” Her Master replied, muscular legs crossing under her, “They recognize that our mental faculties were in an altered state, but tomorrow I believe we are going to… ‘travel to an assignment that will clear our heads’ I think the phrase was.”

“Ah… does that mean I’m going to get stuck with a stick in the mud?” Poppy asked.

“You may,” She replied, “But I suspect they will be some of the few beings more chaotically inclined than you are.”

“Ah, that is a sense of dread,” Poppy noted, “My old friend.”

Barris just coughed, “I’m, uh, going to take a shower now, bye!” And fled the room. She did not need to think about how fun it would be to go another round and did not need to see more of her Master being naked.

She was going to have enough fantasies already!

<<<Poppy>>>

“I think she’s embarrassed…” Poppy commented.

“Such an astute observation.” Luminara said dryly, “Though to be fair the fact that you pumped us full of eggs doesn’t help the situation.” The fact that she didn’t sound worried told Poppy that her attempt to render the eggs inert was successful!

Still didn’t stop that surge of disappointment, but she pushed that aside easily enough. “My emotions are more calm than they were before,” She said on a different topic entirely, choosing to step around that minefield, “Still anxiety ridden though! I’m glad I’m not going to be, you know, killed for my diet but that doesn’t solve the other problems.”

“Other problems?” Luminara asked curiously as she stood and went to her closet to get dressed.

And Poppy didn’t allow those muscular legs or amazing… everything else distract her. Barely. 

“Unemployment, for one. I lack licenses, contacts, even a legal identity. I know you guys are helping with that, but that doesn’t make the problems go away in my mind.” She shrugged, feeling that this would at least help explain how the average person felt. “Logically I know that they’re being worked on, but emotionally… I don’t have the Force to enforce that on my own emotions, and I was never the most emotionally stable being.”

Luminara hummed at that as she got dressed, “Emotions are hardly logical,” She said, “However we are working to help you, I’m sure if you asked the Masters would provide you with busy work to keep you occupied,” She offered.

“If nothing else,” Poppy replied, “It would keep me from making more insults to the natural order.” The jedi master turned to look at her sharply, and so she rushed to explain, “I was synthesizing poisons as you slept and I might have, just might have, concocted a venom that would act as both an acid and an oxidizer to most metallic alloys and organic compounds while being highly flammable?”

“... I will pretend I didn’t hear this, you will pretend you never said it,” Luminara declared after a few moments. “Please dress yourself, the Council wants us to meet with your legal representative in two hours.”

Poppy mumbled before she got up and started to look for her own clothes before… shrugging and morphing her tentacles into a dress. “Tada,~” She said with a smile, “I look amazing, if I do say so myself.”

Sure, the dress was mostly purple, gold, and black but it also didn’t look like flesh. Instead, it looked more akin to fur.

Luminara just rolled her eyes and smiled in amusement.

“We, I, am, are amazing in every sense of the word!” She boasted, “Except when it comes to piloting a starship! You will also find that I am the most humble of people, why I would win humili-” She wasn’t able to finish her statement before a pillow smacked into her face.

Could she have dodged it? Easily. Was it funnier to let herself get hit? Absolutely.

“Humiliation, yes?” The jedi master asked with a smirk, “Just making sure. Try to keep your pheromones and drugs in check, hmm?”

“I shall make the attempt,” Poppy replied with a shrug, “Best I can offer without coming along in a sealed suit and that, I feel, would probably send the wrong impression. A funny impression, but the wrong one.”

“I’ll accept it,” Luminara said with a snort of amusement.

“If you didn’t, I’d be concerned,” Poppy replied with a level of seriousness, “That said… are we taking a taxi or your own air car?”

“My own, it will be faster,” She said, “And will let us bypass some bureaucracy, though less than I’d have hoped.”

That made sense to Poppy, though that there were any that needed to be bypassed annoyed her. No matter, there were reasons the Republic was shattering anyway and that was just one part of it.

“Now… let me collect my embarrassed padawan before we head out,” Luminara said with a chuckle as she put on a robe and straightened it.

“I couldn’t stop you if I wanted to,” Poppy replied with a smile, “She is, after all, your padawan.”

“True.” It was the end to casual conversation at least. Poppy had to do something she, and all other sentients in the galaxy, hated: Paperwork.

[hr][/hr]

The only reason the ride wasn’t awkward was, likely, the pile of electronic and paper forms Poppy had to go through and sign. She was, thankfully, able to read the script used but it still took some getting used to.

And there was a lot of reading. God preserve her if she signed away the right to use her likeness because she missed some random sub-paragraph. Or worse, if she signed away her ability to eat chocolate.

Barris mostly kept to herself, either reading her on dataslate thing or just staring off into nothing. Though every once in a while she would look at Poppy before blushing and returning to doing whatever she was doing. Poppy thought it was rather cute and she bet Luminara was amused as well.

“Well, I’m done with everything I can sign without a lawyer to look over them,” Not that there were many of those, “How long until we arrive?”

“Just a few minutes,” Luminara replied easily, “Is there anything that caused you worry?”

“I noticed that I wouldn’t be allowed to carry a weapon, and that carries problems,” She replied instantly, “It likely doesn’t apply to my body, the existence of other species that have natural weapons would prevent that, but I dislike not being able to protect myself against certain threats. If I’m hungry, I can’t fire energy blasts and that restricts my ranged options.”

“You speak as though you expect to be attacked?” Luminara asked, eyebrow raised.

“Better to have and not need than need and not have,” She replied, “The nation I’m from was very libertine when it came to self defense tools, but I’ll not go into a political argument here about that. Besides, there is a civil war going on.”

Luminara just hummed, “Can’t argue with that honestly,” She admitted.

“Truthfully, I’m being a touch paranoid,” Poppy admitted in return, “But I was paid to be, so it’s become a bit ingrained. Of course, my job also involved training other people to be paranoid too, so it may spread.”

Luminara snorted faintly, “Dare I saw the Republic could probably use some more like that…” She muttered.

“With luck, I’ll get credentials allowing me to work on getting your temple up to date,” Poppy replied with a viscous grin, “I saw many mistakes that I could exploit to break in if I wished, and if I saw them others will have too.”

“What did you see?” Barris asked with a frown, “Trying to break into the Temple sounds like suicide.”

Poppy shrugged, “Too few security checkpoints, once you get past one you don’t really have many obstacles in your way until you reach something important.” It was a common enough error, but still an error. “Ideally you’d have one at each door, just a quick keycard reader or combination lock. Even if the attacker hacks or picks their way through, that adds time and may cause them to get noticed by security.”

“That would also slow down legitimate visitors,” Luminara noted as the air car slowed down.

“Yes, but everything has tradeoffs,” She replied with a shrug, “In this case it’s a minor one, the people that are supposed to be there should be able to get through the doors almost as quickly as if they were simply unlocked already. Obviously, the keycode inside them should change daily if you want high security, but weekly or bi-weekly is fine for most sections of the building.”

Barris just hummed, while Luminara nodded after giving it some thought, “I suppose trading visitor comfort for security is a fair enough trade given these troubled times,” She said after a few seconds.

“That’s how I look at it.” Poppy said with a chuckle, “And like I said ‘Better to Have and not Need, then Need and not Have’ so it makes sense.” Then her hand waved, “Of course, giving up Freedom for Security never ends well. Certainly, you can design an impressively secure system that would block almost all intruders… but once it is broken they’ll know everything there is to know about you.”

“Quite a problem,” Barris commented.

“Yes, having all of your biometric data in a system put together by fallible beings would be a problem for most,” She replied with a smirk, “And your location. And habits. Did you know that you can put together a system advanced enough to track possible pregnancies by browsing and buying habits?”

The girl looked rather horrified by the idea, as she should be, but there was no more time to get into the details for the car had stopped and it was time to leave and deal with… more paperwork. God give her strength.

“Do you purposefully drop things like this to get people to react?” Luminara asked, looking vaguely perturbed herself.

“Not particularly,” She replied, “It was just on topic and makes people think. I figure that if I bring up an extreme example it pushes people into being careful about what they find acceptable and not. It’s a bit like the opposite of the ‘big ask’ negotiation strategy.”

The Jedi frowned before nodding, “I see, I assume you learned how to manipulate people from your job?”

“Pretty much,” Poppy replied, “Didn’t use it too often, but it’s always a good arrow to have in your quiver.”

If she found something odd about the expression, she didn’t show it as she began the process of getting Poppy to the right desk…

[hr][/hr][hr][/hr]