Hoth: Blood and Ice

After a long night of working on his snow fort, Pipka was beyond excited for what he had planned for the morning. He and Gibzy had milked the goats throughout the night during breaks.

At first light, they went inside to steam the goat milk chocolate mixture. It took very little adjusting to come up with a creamy, decadent concoction. Pipka sent Gibzy off to put up signs and wrangle people into the Mess Hall. While he put up a single sign.

Hoth Chocolate
A Hug for a Mug

Then he waited, the occasional bleating from Petunia behind him (his 'extra pump' of milk goat).

Nudimsu walked in to look around kitchen calmly, looking around the area. He had only begun to explore it last night with Hacha getting a late night snack. But now it was early morning. Much earlier than he had anticipated to be asleep. And there he, his little bat family member of the Turtle, with a sign for 'Hoth Chocolate.'

What a amusing play on words; some humans would find it a wonderful play on words. And the low cost of a hug? What a steal. It was just too good to come up. Yes. He was calm this morning. Nothing to be upset about. He looked like he had just woken up too. Thrown together some clothes that would keep him warm enough to walk around the base, just enough to reach the mess hall.

"Pipka." Nudimsu said, walking up to the front of the line. Nobody there yet, lucky him. First customer. "Good morning. Did you do all this yourself?"

"Oh no, my new friend Gibzy helped a lot. We milked the goats in between building our snow fort last night.

Want a mug, it's delicious and the fresh goats' milk makes all the difference. Petunia here can give you an extra pump if it's too sweet for you."

He shook his head. "No thanks, I plan on going back to sleep shortly. Made a new friend, that is wonderful. The goat is...the goat is there too, yes. I see." He nodded with affirmation. "I realized that we hadn't had a chance to catch up. Been a wild day for both of us yesterday, it seems. Got...got a minute to do that?"

"Absolutely, just putting the finishing touches on the prep work."

"Perfect. Well. Went to Junktown yesterday with Lana, Breela, and Jub'lub.. Had to miss the cleanup. Great job, by the way. I heard you were really helpful with that." He nodded with affirmation at him. "Met a crazy force user who entered my thoughts and just gave me a splitting headache for the rest of the day. Not a great start of the morning, right?"

"Oh, you guys got to go to Junktown without me? Well, I was kind of smelly after cleaning up all that sludge, and you have to make a good first impression with a new client.

Wait, was it one of those creepy mask wearers who got in your head? I met one yesterday afternoon, but she was nice. It was more of a helmet than a mask, but the visor of the helmet was more masky than visory... She said she wanted to meet you and the others, Luth Khalan.

If you're head is hurting and you're sleepy, you should go cuddle with some goats, that will help."

He laughed a little, more stressed induced than anything. "Yeah...snuggle with a goat. I will...I will take that under consideration. Maybe go meet your mask friend a little later." He stared at Pipika. "Don't worry, though, we will go do your job later. Wanted to get some rest first. Very important that I go rest first."

He paused and gathered his thoughts before continuing. "So, after I got back, brought in the Turtle, as you know. Then got asked to go fly some for a...mutual colleague, you could say. Still had a headache, but it was important to do, so I happily did it. Found a pirate radio too. Going to be quite helpful to listen in on them later. You know, after I'm rested."

"Yep, I'm hearing ya, very tiring day you had yesterday. I had a rough day yesterday too, well a little bit of roughness. After cleaning up in the hangar, I kind of moseyed around until I saw this get together announced and I thought to myself, another great chance to cultivate assets. So I went, but you know what they did? They sacrificed a goat! And drank it's blood, didn't even make stew out of it, just a big ole cup of goat's blood.

But you should go and rest. Did you know, if you lay your head down on a goat, you can listen to it's little heart just beating away, it's like a little metronome rocking you to sleep. I think that would be a big help for you right now. I've got some warm steamed milk here, no chocolate. You drink a cup of this and go lie down on a goat." Pipka holds out a cup of steam goats' milk for Nudimsu.

He takes the cup of milk and gives a long glance. "I see. Goat sacrificing. Well, glad I missed that thing. Chose instead to go out to watch the lights outside with Hacha. Had a chat with the droid C5-PT. Have you seen him around? Very fascinating droid. After that, I got some steamed hams from here. By the way, they're not steamed, they're grilled. Very confusing name conventions humans have. But I am sidetracked now. After I ate, I was exhausted from everything and immediately went to bed afterwards without paying much attention. And I realize now that maybe that was my fault."

He looked at the mug and the milk inside. Looked at Pipika. Looked at the mug. Looked at Pipika. "So. Pipika. Now that we're all caught up on my day yesterday, why don't we talk about your day."

"Well, I appreciate you taking the time to ask about my day. I think I went over everything. Cleaned the hangar, chatted with Ms. Luth, went to that terrible sermon, built a snow fort with my new friend Gibzy Wizy Tik, really nice fellow, he should be back soon.

Oh, of course, I took the Rabbit to get rigged for the ice by the Ortolans. They had a bazaar outside, in case you missed that. But they didn't have time, so they had to take it back to their place to work on and left Gibzy here as collateral. It should be back any minute now

That was pretty much it." He says, petting Petunia who had started headbutting Pipka in the back.

"Yes, I heard we got a new ground ship. Thank you; I've been wanting one for years. Just was never in the budget. Can't wait to see it later. You know, after I've rested."

He watched his hands pet the goat and stared at the goat. Stared at the milk. Stared at the sign. "You...sure you haven't forgotten about anything? Could be minor thing, could be a big thing..."

"I don't think so... Oh no, I forgot to tell you about the best part of the bazaar, there was this really nice man and his brothers at a stall, guess what it was called...

'Jo’s Goats Emporium, all Goats, all the time' and guess what he sold...

Goats! I picked up a whole herd of goats. Now we can have goats' milk or goat cheese whenever we want. I didn't have to pay him, I just signed a payment plan.

And just for you, there's even some racing goats in the mix, although I'm not sure which ones are the racers yet."

"Jo's? Was...was he a Devaronian by some chance?"

Always feels like that guy just follows me around sometimes.

"And, oh...you signed a payment plan. For all these goats. Racing goats too. I have never heard of goat racing before. Couldn't...couldn't have just gotten one? Nope...had to get a whole bunch of them..." He finally drank his warm goat milk. It wasn't bad, at least. For warm goat milk. He preferred it blue or green, though. "So, when you got this great deal on all these goats, your first thought was store all of them...where, exactly?"

"Yeah, do you know Jo? Wow, you know just about everyone.

Now, you can't just get one goat, then it'd be lonely." Pipka says as he scratches under Petunia's chin. "It was at the end of the day and Gibzy and I had to get started on our snow fort, so I put them in the hold of theTurtle.

Now I know exactly what you're thinking, 'But Pipka, it's so sterile and boring in the hold, no place for a goat to live.' But don't worry, I heard they got power to the hydroponics wing and there's a place for livestock. We can give the goats the home they deserve... until we leave Hoth.

I'm sure by then, Hacha and I can made some tweaks and adjustments to the hold to make it more warm and welcoming for our little tribe. That's what we goat farmers call them, a tribe, not a herd."

There is a very long stare at Pipka, just trying to remain calm as he takes another sip of the goat milk. "Huh. Well, at least you got a place you can put them." He opened his mouth wide and just held it there for a moment. "A tribe. Yes. Huh. We'll we will see about all that if and when we leave the planet. And we got a place to put them. Great. Okay." He took a very deep breath. "So they'll be gone from the hold, today, you said. As in, as soon as you wrap up this little stand, right? Because they're kinda noisy right now. Up and awake at the crack of dawn sort of thing. I also didn't know if you knew, but the ship is designed to echo noise. Makes for easier communication when you're in different sections of the ship without needing to solely rely on comms."

He pauses and looks at him. "And there's a whole bunch of them in there right now. Making noise. And that echoes thru the ship. So we can all hear the goat calls in the ship, well, everywhere. Have to tell you, not as soothing as you seem to think it is when there's a tribe of them in one spot echoing thru the ship."

"You seem very stressed out and tired Nudimsu. I know what you need, some guided medication, or maybe some goat yoga. Yeah, that's a thing, and we can charge bit chits for it.

I'll make sure we add some sound proofing for the goats' quarters when we renovate the Turle. In the meantime, I will get them into the hydroponics, just as soon as it's cleared out and ready for them."

Remmington arrives to enjoy the warm meal that he heard is being provided now due to some cook. He notices the sign and walks up to inquire. "So what is going on here?"

"Nothing. Enjoy your Hoth Chocolate. I apparently need to go do Yoga. I'm going to instead go to the barracks and get more sleep instead." He nodded to the man and shook his head.

Hopefully Hacha was fairing better with all the noise.

/exit

Pipka waves to Nudimsu as he leaves, then turns to his first actual customer of the mornMug.

"Good morning, I'm Pipka and this is Petunia. We have some fresh goats' milk hot chocolate. The only charge is a hug for a mug." He holds his arms up expectantly.

Remmington nods back to the Chiss as he leaves.

He turns his attention back to the Chandra-Fan. "What was that about?" He asks about what he may have missed with the Chiss.

"I am Lord Remmington Balmung. Nice to meet you." He offers the Pipka a hug. "Where did you get this goat from? Was it from that weird merchant yesterday?"

"Oh Nudimsu, he had a rough day yesterday, I think he needs a spa day." Pipka happily accepts his hug and presents a mug full of hot chocolate in return. "Yes Lord Remmington, and not just one goat, Jo sold me a whole her- tribe of goats. They're great!"

Galen entered, sipping from a cup of his own. Looking around, he saw the goat and the hot chocolate.

"Oh! Fresh milk. That does make it better."

Pipka uses his expert customer service skills to split his attention between his customers, he even picks up a mug and starts polishing it with a rag. "The freshest. If the hot chocolate is too sweet for you, or if you prefer some caf, Petunia can help you with an extra pump." He stops polishing his mug long enough to hold out his arms for a hug, rag in one hand, mug in the other.

"My wife and daughter like it sweet, but I wouldn't mind some milk." he set down his cup, already half full of hot chocolate. Then hugged Pipka. "Thank you."