To catch a thief...

[Kale]

(OOC: I'm posting this here because the action will be shortly moving to the Recruiting Center. I wanted to establish some of Kale's immediate history before jumping into the start of his Jedi career. Note that Kale doesn't know yet that he has some Force sensitivity.)

Kale threaded his way through the masses in one of Coruscant's many open-air bazaars. He barely made a ripple in the crowd; everyone was too busy to take notice of a five-foot-six, one-hundred-ten-pound human teenager with dirty mouse-brown hair and ratty clothes that were too big for him. He was just another drop in the bucket, an insignificant mote of dust lost among the billions of people that called the planetary city "home." They were all the same to him, as abstract and impersonal as the stratoscrapers that plugged up the skyline. But he didn't care. He'd gotten used to it.

Kale tripped and stumbled into a tall, bald alien in a long, colorful coat and reached out to steady himself. The alien turned an ill-tempered tentacled face toward him and growled, "Watch where you're going, boy!"

"Sorry," Kale muttered weakly as he dodged on through the crowd.

The fifteen-year-old was again lost in anonymity amid a sea of merchants and consumers where hundreds of unsuspecting people shuffled forward like lambs to the slaughter before credit-hawking vendors and their overpriced merchandise. Kale couldn't afford to waste his money on magnetic pain relievers and cheap picture frames. He was doing his own brand of shopping.

Kale bowed his head just long enough to steal a glance at the pocketbook he'd just lifted before stuffing it away in the pocket of his oversized pants. It was leather, with some expensive-looking embossing on it. That was always a good sign.

He floated along through the bazaar, his gray eyes darting across the busy street in search of another likely target. Off-world tourists were usually the best candidates; they usually carried a bit of hard currency for spending money in places like these. You could always tell off-worlders by how they gawked at the buildings.

Kale bumped into an uppity-looking humanoid and slipped a stealthy hand into his hip pocket, drawing out a thin billfold while the man berated him. Without a word, the boy disappeared into the masses.

He wasn't proud of his line of work, but it was all he had to live on. Besides, he wasn't the only thief on the street. Most of them just set up booths on the curb and called themselves street vendors. At least he only took what he needed.

That was what he was telling himself when a throaty cry went up over the buzz of the marketplace: "Thief! Thief! Someone stop that boy!"

Without changing his pace, Kale slowly looked over his shoulder. The shout had come from the tall, tentacled alien. The creature must have turned after him when it realized its wallet was missing, and now it was pointing straight at him and barreling straight through the crowd.

Stay calm, don't panic, Kale told himself. He'd been found out many times before. Most people didn't want to get involved when it came to crime. But the alien was still shouting after him and drawing stares from all around The teenager doubled his pace, slipping and twisting around customers and kiosks, doing his best to throw the alien off his trail. Someone trying to be heroic reached out and seized him by the arm. Spinning out of the good citizen's grasp, Kale broke into a run, hoping to make it to the safety of a dark alley.

Approaching a multi-level speeder port, Kale considered ducking inside and taking the lift to a lower platform, but as soon as he made for the entrance, the familiar "danger" sense struck him, almost like a bank of cold needles prickling at the back of his neck. Turning back across the street, he glanced over his shoulder to see two uniformed constables stepping out of the speeder port onto the sidewalk.

Weaving transversely across the bazaar, Kale stole a glance back the way he'd come and spotted the tall alien scanning the crowd for him. The alien had seen the two officers now and was waving them down to enlist their help. Kale hastily made his way to the edge of the crowd, around two competing sausage vendors, and into a debris-filled alleyway. He cut as quickly as he could through the mess of refuse and came up against a concrete wall with a service ladder bolted to it. Paydirt.

The teenager gripped the rusty ladder rungs and shinnied up the ladder. Hauling himself over the lip of the wall, he found he was on the edge of a raised courtyard much like the bazaar he’d just escaped with an official-looking complex on the far end. He couldn't read the directional signs which marked the Jedi Temple, but he knew it didn't look like a police station, and there was enough of a crowd between here and there to get lost in the middle of it before the cops figured out which way he went.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Kale pressed his way into the mass of sentient life, trying to become as inconspicuous as possible.
.
.
.

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah had grown tired of the filtered air of the Jedi Complex, and so he decided to take a stroll around the block to clear his head. Now that his master had been switched, many questions ran through his mind, and the mongoose rubbed the back of his neck as he walked, dodging the occasional person along the way.

Life as a Jedi had been hard, but he had learned many useful skills, sensing others and other items being one of them. Unfortunately, he didn't sense the young human who was coming his way on a rather rapid course, and the two slammed into each other, Sejah's mass knocking the boy down.

"Oh my! I'm sorry kid," Sejah rapidly explained as he reached a paw down to help him up, "Didn't see you coming there, I guess. You okay?"

[Kale]

Kale bit his tongue as he went down. Wincing, he scrambled to get back on his feet, barely giving Sejah a glance. "I'm fine," he mumbled, turning to disappear back into the crowd. As he shoved his hands back into his pockets, he stopped short and bit down on a curse. The pocketbook he'd just lifted was gone.

The thief wheeled around quickly and dropped to his knees, locating the wallet on the pavement where he'd fallen. Snatching it up, he tried to tuck it away and make a stealthy escape, only to bump into Sejah again.

"Scuse me," he said, trying to push past.

[Sejah Haversh]

As Kale pushed past, Sejah spotted a few security officers heade his way, and quickly put the picture togehter with Kale picking up the wallet. Nimble chasing after the boy, Sejah came up beside him and grabbed his upper arm none-too-lightly, whispering, "If you don't want to get caught, play along kid. That was a really amateur stunt you just pulled."

[Kale]

Kale tried yanking his arm out of Sejah's grasp, but his grip was too strong. Looking around for a handy escape, he saw the constables jogging in his direction from the alleyway ladder. Oh, Frell...

The two officers looked slightly winded after the chase as they approached Sejah and Kale. The first one slowed to a halt and said in his best authoritative tone, "We'll take care of the kid, sir. He's been picking pockets a level down. Just your average street trash."

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah looked offended, and then looked at Kale and back to the constables. "You must be kidding, sirs," he said, a light chuckle to his voice. "My cousin Titus and I have been up here all day enjoying the scenery," he added, waving a paw in front of himself, and hoping desperatly that his trick would work.

"I'm sorry, but I believe you have the wrong boy." He concluded, returning his paw to his him where his lightsaber hung. But, he never took his grasp off of Kale's arm. Sejah had once been in the boy's place, and knew what it was like.

[Kale]

Kale couldn't believe it. This lummox was actually trying to cover for him. Well, there was nothing for him to do but play along and do his best to look like Sejah's...

Cousin?

He glanced at the alien beside him, just barely holding back a lively string of expletives. He didn't know what kind of family resemblence Sejah expected him to muster.

But a change immediately came over the officers' faces. "It's the wrong boy," one constable said to the other. "Sorry about that, sir, we must've followed the wrong trail." Much embarrassed, the two officers quickly headed down the road to keep searching.

Kale's jaw dropped. It wasn't until he was sure the cops were safely out of earshot that he said incredulously, "I don't believe they went for that. That was the most jacked-up--" Turning, he spotted Sejah's lightsaber dangling from his belt. Kale took a step back, startled. "You're a Jedi!"

Kale had thought he'd seen everything this neck of Coruscant could throw at him, but he'd never encountered a Jedi. He'd always thought they were far too lofty to deal with the underworld of the capital planet.

"What do you want with me?" he asked. "I haven't done anything."

[Sejah Haversh]

A smirk crossed Sejah's face and he bit his lip before saying, "Oh, I'd say you did something, all right." After that, he held up the wallet Kale had stolen, just out of immidate reach.

"You're clumsy, kid, and you picked a bad mark if this is all you got," he used his thumb to flip the wallet open and thumb out only a few bills of little worth. Flicking it back shut, Sejah pocketed the billfold and continued. "A jedi I may be, but I've been where you are, and you've got a lot to learn. Come on, follow me." He cocked his head to the side and started back toard the Jedi complex.

[Kale]

"I'm not clumsy," Kale grumbled. "This is the first time I've gotten caught in three months."

As Sejah turned, Kale considered making a break for it, but Sejah held all the evidence needed to put him back in the penitentiary for however long until the cells got too crowded. In his view, jedi were just cops with lightsabers and superpowers. He didn't like getting this much scrutiny.

Following close behind Sejah, Kale pleaded in a faltering voice, "Look, I don't steal because I enjoy it. I've got a sister in a lower level apartment. She's sick all the time, and it's all I can do to take care of her. You've got to let me go; I don't know what'll happen to her if they put me away."

[Sejah Haversh]

As he walked, Sejah raised his eyebrows and with kind pink eyes he said, "Well, in that case we'll just have to send one of our healers back with you to make her better. We'd be more than happy to oblige, you know. In fact, we insist. I'd hate to see a good youth like you have to resort to crime jsut to take care of your dear sister."

His voice was mostly sympathetic, but held a bit of a "You think I'm going to believe that lie?" tone to it. Still, it was fun to watch the kid squirm a little.

[Kale]

"What?" Kale looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a second before he could recover some semblance of composure. "Sir, that's really generous, but it just won't work. She's, uh... she's..."

It had worked once on a feisty aid worker, but he could tell it hadn't fooled Sejah for a moment. Narrowing his eyes defiantly, he said, "All right, I don't have a sister. I don't have anyone except me. I share a one-room apartment with a guy who sells deathsticks on the side; you have to shift for yourself down there. You can go ahead and turn me in, I don't care. Even the wardens don't want to have street trash like me around."

[Sejah Haversh]

"Who said anything about turning you in?" Sejah balked, opening the door to the main floor of the Complex for Kale. "Doesn't make much difference to me if you lift a few creds from a tourist. Just figured you might want to see what else is out there, or at least take a few tips from an old pro."

The mongoose led him around a corner into the Jedi 'cafeteria' and picked up a tray for himself. "You hungry, kid? Grab a tray. And, what's your name, I can't just call you 'kid', can I"

[Kale]

Not turning me in? Kale thought. Then why is he--

The humid warmth of the cafeteria was rich with the scent of hot cooking. Even if it was institutional food, it smelled better than what Kale had eaten in a month. His stomach growled audibly, and he breathlessly followed Sejah to the tray stand.

He was so taken aback that he barely understood the jedi's query. "Kale," he said. "My name's Kale."

Kale didn't offer any more questions, not while there was hot food to be had. He took his tray and followed Sejah down the line. The clerk at the soup counter gave him a puzzled look, then dutifully filled his bowl with chicken gumbo, and he picked up a sandwich made with some processed meat he couldn't identify and a can of soda farther down. Once both their trays were well stocked, they found an empty table, and Kale began eating with a gusto.

It wasn't until his soup was half gone that Kale spoke again. "I, uh... ah... thanks." He wiped his mouth with the back of his jacket sleeve then said, "Do you jedi do this sort of thing often?"

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah knew the food wasn't great, but it was free to Jedi, and not bad, really. He blew on a spoonful of his gumbo to cool it before swallowing it and then answering Kale's question while popping the tab on his can of soda.

"Good to meet you, Kale. And, no, we don't do this often." He paused to chug a quick drink and then wiped his mouth with the back of his paw much like Kale had with his jacket sleeve. "Tell me, Kale, how long you been on your own?"

[Kale]

Kale furrowed his brow and did some quick figuring. "I guess it's been about four years," he said. "I was the slave of an old man named Klaus Malborn before that. He moved to Coruscant to set up a business and got into gambling. When he couldn't pay his debts, I knew he was going to sell me, so I took off. They killed him three days later."

He told the story impassively between bites of his sandwich. There wasn't any love lost between him and his old owner.

[Sejah Haversh]

"Nasty thing, slavery," Sejah said, his mouth half-full of sandwich. Swallowing the lump, he continued, "Finally outlawed it on ym planet within the last twenty years or so." A pause to eat a spoonful of soup, "Of course, everybeast knows there are still a few slaving guilds around, but, eventually they'll be gone for good."

Swigging a bit more pop, Sejah stifled a belch and then pointed out the window at a being going by. "Okay, right now, tell me how much money he's carrying."

[Kale]

It was a heck of a non sequitir, but Kale hadn't been that vested in his life story. He glanced at the being, closed his eyes, concentrated, and said, "Two hundred fifty credits. Man, I always bite too early. He must've just stopped at an ATM."

Kale smiled. "I used to play that game with Sharkey. We'd make a bet, then one of us would hit the guy, and we'd count the money. He stopped playing because I always won."

[Sejah Haversh]

The kid was right on, 250 on the mark. Sejah only knew it because he searched for the structure of paper or plastic monies on the man's person.

But, instead of saying he was right, Sekah simply shrugged and pointed at another man. "Now him. And what else does he have of value?"

[Kale]

Kale followed Sejah's pointing finger to an old man in an overcoat. "Him? He wouldn't be worth it. He's got a few pension checks, but no cash. And he has a gold wedding band, and a pocket watch, but it's... stopped..."

Kale trailed off and scooped the last spoonful of soup from his bowl. "Don't ask me how I know. I just call it instinct. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But you have to use what you've got, right?"

[Sejah Haversh]

Okay, there was no other way around it, Kale did not have a natural instinct that sharp. He had something else much more powerful.

But, before he was going to tell Kale what exactly his true ability was, Sejah was going to play a different game. Finishing his sandwich, the Nehantite causally said, "What would you say if I told you you could eat like this, or better, three meals a day, every day, and have your own room that you don't have to pay rent on, Kale? What would you think about a life like that?"

[Kale]

Kale set down his spoon and stared at the mongoose in unveiled disbelief. "You're joking, right?" he said. "A place like that couldn't stay in business." He chuckled at the thought, but Sejah's countenence never wavered. Kale grew serious again.

"Don't tell me you'd be paying for it," he said.

[Sejah Haversh]

His question was greeted by a small burst of laughter, and Sejah set his pop can down, looking at the kid next to him. "Yeah, do I look like I could afford that? No, now, listen up."

The mongoose turned on his stool and looked straight at Kale, his tone now more serious. "I'm offering you the same deal that was offered to me when I walked through those doors. A place to stay, food to eat, and clothes to wear. And it doesn't cost you a dime, ever."

He leaned back and rested a paw on the counter before continuing, "What you have isn't intuition, Kale, it's a skill amplified through the Force. Now, I don't expect you to believe that right off, but we can do some tests and I think we'd find my hunch is right. So, you agree to stick it out here and maybe become a Jedi, and it's easy street compared to what you're used to. Who else is going to offer you a deal like this, kid. Think about it."

[Kale]

Kale stared blankly out the window, his mind reeling at what Sejah had just told him. He couldn't have been more flummoxed if a clone army had just landed in the courtyard outside. He looked incredulously at Sejah, waiting for the punchline, the peals of laughter, or for the mongoose to point out the hidden holocamera.

Nothing.

"I don't believe what I'm hearing," he murmured. "Me, a jedi? That's crazy! I don't... I don't believe it."

Kale bowed his head and rubbed his temples, trying to make sense of what the mongoose had just told him. He found his career as a pickpocket flashing in front of his mind's eye, and incidents he couldn't explain--the times he beat Sharkey in the guessing game, all the times he knew when there were cops on teh lookout, and that night when he was hiding from a team of Rodian hitmen. He'd been trapped in an alley with no cover. The Rodians were looking straight at him, and they didn't see him.

What Sejah was promising sounded too good to be true. But if there was a possibility...

Kale raised his head again and looked evenly into Sejah's eyes. "What kind of tests?"

[Sejah Haversh]

It was rewarding to see Kale actually think the offer over and his question brought a smile to Sejah's face. After finishing the last spoonful of his gumbo, the Nehantite calmly explained, "Blood work, mostly, and maybe a few other things the Masters might require. Nothing more painful than a needle prick, I assure you. So, sound interesting? Only thing is, if you join, you join for life. If you choose to leave, though, you're free to walk out that door and I won't turn you in for that wallet today. But, can you honestly even guerantee yourself basic necessities on a regular basis how you're living now?"

[Kale]

Kale considered Sejah's counsel deeply, strenuously. This was unlike anything he'd ever encountered in the span of his existence, and, for all the allure of free food and shelter, it frightened him. Subsistence thieving was a poor way to live, but it was familiar territory to him. Now he felt like he was tottering on the brink of a cliff and had just been told he could fly.

He looked down again at his now empty bowl of soup, then back at Sejah, and there was more genuineness in his eyes than there had been during their whole thirty-minute acquaintance. "No, I guess not. I can't say I really know what being a Jedi means, except for what I've seen in a movie or two. But, I don't know. Maybe I could actually make something of my life. Maybe I could make a difference. If that's possible, I want to try it. I want to mean something."

[Sejah Haversh]

That was an even more profound change than Sejah had been expecting. Sure, a little mooching and a fake "yes I'll be a jedi" wasn't the true answer to what he wanted to hear from the boy, but the "make a difference" part seemed a little out of place.

Still, if Kale could discipline himself enough to stick with the comittment he just made, then he might make a good Jedi. The mongoose nodded in understanding of Kale's hopes, and then continued on, making sure the boy knew what he was getting into.

"Kale, I appreciate your willingness to change, but, I want you to know a few things before you make this decision. Joining the Order isn't a light duty. Once you sign on, it is for life, and there is no turning back. The demands may be high, but the rewards can be greater." As if to accent his point, Sejah looked back to the food counter and raised a paw, a can of soda flying from the counter and slapping into his furry palm. Setting it down on the counter before them, Sejah grinned and went on, "Oh, sure, there are fun things like that, and the mind control I used earlier on those cops, but there are also much greater powers that are not to be toyed with. I'm still a padawan myself, so I've still got a lot to learn, but, I just want to make sure this is something you're really willing to commit your life to. So, still interested?"

[Kale]

Kale listened carefully as Sejah spoke of duty and commitment. He didn't have much of a frame of reference in that department, but he had to figure it couldn't be any worse than eking out a barely liveable portion from the pockets of passers-by. He knew there wasn't much future in that kind of business, and the more lucrative trades of the underworld scared him. This seemed like his only ticket off a dead-end street.

And if it didn't work out, chances were he could just disappear into the shadows again, and no one would miss him.

"I don't have a life," Kale said. "All I've ever had was what I could steal. So you're saying I have to trade in that, take some classes, commit myself to the Order and all that, and I'll get a brand new start, and three meals a day? Yeah, I'm interested."

He looked down at his own can of soda and set his hand a few inches away. On a whim, he jerked his hand away, then made a few grasping motions. The can stayed motionless where he had put it. Kale snorted humorously and shook his head.

"Just because I'm a thief doesn't mean I've never thought about the universe," he said. "Yeah, I probably don't know entirely what I'm getting into. But if you guys would actually take me in, I've got to take the opportunity. You said you've been where I am. You understand, right?"

Another thought came to mind, and Kale smirked. "What's your name, anyway? Or is it classified information?"

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah chuckled and extended a paw in handshake manner, grasping Kale's hand in a firm grip. "I'm Sejah, Sejah Haversh. Glad you could join us, Kale. And, yeah, I've been where you are. Didn't have to do it for long, but, I know how it can be."

Releasing the boy's hand, Sejah looked at the can of soda and pointed at it. "Hey, want to see how a Jedi opens a can of pop?" he asked out of the blue, deciding to have a little fun.

[Kale]

Kale accepted the handshake tentatively; there had been few occasions anyone had offered him one. But Sejah's grip felt hearty and honest.

"Uh, sure," he said. "How does a Jedi open a can of pop?"

[Sejah Haversh]

"Like this," Sejah politely replied, taking the can in his left paw and pupping the tab with his right before setting it back down in front of Kale with a bemused grin on his face.

"See, not everything will change. Much of what most would call a normal life still exists."

[Kale]

"Aw, for Pete's sake..." Kale rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but he couldn't help chuckling. "I should've seen that coming."

His lunch was finished, and his stomach felt full for the first time in a long while. Now he had to do something, and he wasn't really sure what the procedure was for aspiring jedi.

Dang, that still sounded ridiculous to him.

"Guess we'd better get to... uh, doing whatever it is we do. And, Sejah... thanks. I don't know really way you did it, but... thanks."

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah got up form his seat and took both their trays to the bus cart on their way out of the cafeteria.

"No problem, kid. Now, c'mon, let's go get you signed in all proper-like. I'm sure there's somebody better suited to getting you registered than me, so, we can head on up to the application room."