After the meal, the dishes were collected by Vercel, who volunteered to make things less awkward. Vasiri seemed a little taken aback at first, but let him clean up the meal. Maruma was unable to sit still when Vercel took the dishes to get clean, and ended up wandering the living quarters of Vasiri. In the distant room, as he was in a makeshift kitchen for the moment, he heard Floran hissing and unintelligible speech, then a few seconds of clattering and shuffling of furniture.
When Vercel shakily peeked around the corner, Vasiri was glaring at Maruma, with a nasty welt across her faded green jaw, while Maruma nursed her now-deformed headband amid a ruined bookshelf that she was apparently tossed into. The books scattered across the floor, while Vasiri assessed a destroyed table.
He was scared to even ask what happened, since he was a guest in Vasiri's house. It only took a second to get the answer to the current event. Maruma rushed to his side and pointed accusingly at Vasiri, hissing and shouting, "Sshe assskss to take her! Takess my mate!! Mine!"
Vercel was doubtful about the accuracy of the accusation, but he merely glanced to Vasiri and shrugged. The formal Floran seemed shocked to the core, and frowned as she sighed, "Correction, I asked you to take me with you. I sense I have outlived my purpose here, and you are the first to find this place since my family was here last." The sense of poise that she carried was a little diffused now, only proving that this was something she had thought about before this. Or that she was really good at recovering. Vercel couldn't quite tell.
Glancing to his shocked first mate, he couldn't see any discrepancy between Vasiri's correction and the body language of the two. Maruma must be quite possessive in that case. He looked between the two, before he opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Vasiri, "Also, your... mate... should ask before taking my furniture again. I will not hesitate to ruin her crown if her actions do not cease."
Vercel had a feeling on where Maruma gained her cultural diversity in her inventory, but for some reason it was rather endearing for the immature race of Florans. Vasiri was clearly ruffled by having to fight off an absent-minded burglar in the homeplace she must have kept up for all these years, however, and with a restrained scoff of irritation, she looked back to Vercel. "I repeat my request in spite of her offense. I would prefer to accompany you on your travels. The majority of my home can be collected with your tool, correct?"
Upon looking to his own Matter Manipulator, he nodded once and looked back to her, "I believe that would work actually. It's great for building, too." He smiled and lifted the tool in question, before falling silent as she turned around to pack her more precious belongings, hissing quietly at Maruma as she left his sight.
Vercel's Floran mate hissed back with a measure of venom as Vasiri walked by, clearly seeing the Hylotl-raised Floran as more of a romantic threat than possible friend. Even so, a Floran like Vasiri was a very unique situation, and one that Vercel had to regretfully agree was too good to let slip through to time.
As Vercel glanced reassuringly at Maruma, he smiled slightly and looked to the approaching Floran, before nodding once and standing up tall, “Vasiri, considering your unique situation, I think you would make a wonderful addition to the ship I currently call home!” He broke his attempt at authoritative posture with a shrug, looking to his mate, then back at Vasiri once more. He then looked over his Matter Manipulator for a moment and tilting his head. There had to be a way to make another one of these for the clearly aware Floran. He would have plenty of time to figure it out with her onboard however.
He finally slipped his Manipulator to his right hand and flipped through the slots for a moment, before settling on an Avian Flag that he had kept for such an occasion, and set it down in the back of the room. “Vasiri, while I agree your home has every reason to come with you, I currently lack the means or space to bring it at this very moment.”
The Floran’s face was carefully masked in objective acceptance, but Vercel could outright feel the disappointment dawning. He didn’t want to let that disappointment go any further, so he set a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, “Therefore, I leave this here as a means to save the coordinates of this exact spot, so we can come back. I plan to be back here a great many times, and I would be honored if you would be in the company of my mate and myself with each return.”
This definitely brightened her up, and with an uncharacteristic break in her Hylotl persona, she hugged him tightly and sighed, “That… that is more than greatly appreciated. In fact… I believe it would be an honor if we were to consider this a standing place to call home. All of us.” The Floran then stood up straight and turned to face Maruma, then nodding respectfully and sighing happily, “So long as we bring things in, rather than remove them.
Vercel’s mate slumped for a moment, before nodding and picking up her weapons and the corresponding rack that did belong to her. She then grabbed Vercel’s own weapons and grinned as she placed them in the same pouch, before running up to Vercel and hugging him close, “Time to go back to the ssship?”
Vercel then glanced at the two Florans and shrugged, chuckling as he nodded, “I think that sounds like a great idea.”