New kid on the block (open, new character)

[Keito]

"I'm going out, ma."

"Be back in time for dinner."

"Sure thing, ma." Keito slung the bag over her shoulder and barged out the door, noting that she hadn't specified which day she'd be back for dinner. It was good to breathe the free air again, even if said air was Coruscant smog; sometimes life got too crowded with so many brothers at home.

Some miles away and a level down, Keito stopped off at a public ladies' room and opened up her knapsack. Inside was an old outfit of Dillon's. She dressed quickly, stuffing her normal clothes back in the bag (man, did she hate skirts). With her skinny, undeveloped frame and short hair, she now looked to all the world like an adolescent boy. She called herself Thelen; it was her guise of choice when wandering more than a few levels down. It was safer than wandering about as a middle-class girl.

"You want me to wait outside?" Keito raised her voice. "All right, I'll wait outside. You hurry up, okay?" She stepped backwards out the stall, closing the door quickly behind her, and grinned at the startled looks of the surrounding women. "Sorry. Little sister." She slicked her hair back with a little water and glanced in the mirror. Thelen stared back at her. Good.

Once she had gotten back outside, Keito rounded a corner and made her way down to the less veneered levels of Coruscant, where she climbed up on a structural beam above the eye level (and notice) of most passerby, pulled out her sketchpad, and settled back to watch... and draw.

OOC: I'm new to these forums and haven't fleshed out my character that much - http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35901 is all I've got so far; no preference for alliance or whatnot - mostly I want to see what happens, so it would be great if people could just jump in. You can also PM me or IM me at KeitoThelen, but really, I just want to see what direction this goes in, so post away.

[Linn O'Conner]

The figure sat motionless on a bench next to a bar. She was trying to keep warm, pulling her cloak tighter around her. She tucked some of her dark hair behind her ear, and looked about her at anyone walking by.

She stood in restlessness, making sure her blaster was still tight in its holster.

Linn knocked her leather boots against the ground and let her eyes drift upwards. She jumped when she saw a boy sitting up on a beam, crunched with his knees up and a pad of paper in his hands.

She smiled. Interested in what he was doing she quickly and silently hoisted herself up, and slid up behind him and looked over his shoulder to see he was drawing. She made sure her cloak was over her blaster so she didn't scare him.

"You like to draw, kid?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

OOC: Is it okay if I join? :)

Rhea Kaylen made a face at her sandwich. Yech--she hated peppers. Hadn't she told the server droid not to put peppers on this? She could have sworn...oh, never mind. She unceremoniously ploshed the rest of the offending sandwich into the trash bin next to her bench, sighing resignedly. Oh, well, there wasn't time for a good lunch, anyway. She had to be back to the forced labor camp known as her job in less than a half-hour, thanks to a long line at the short-order diner she always ate at.

Rhea stood and shoved her hands in her pockets, pointing herself back in the general direction of her workplace and letting her feet wander as they would. In another part of the city, such exercise would probably be called a pleasant stroll; here in the slums, with nothing at all pleasant about her surroundings, it was nothing more than a personal means of clearing her head.

The woman lifted her eyes to avoid an obviously drunk passerby and suddenly spotted a figure hunched up on top of an exposed building support strut. She wouldn't have spotted the small slip of a boy, except for a sudden flash of pale paper clutched in the young man's hand. Rhea halted, blinking in momentary confusion. As she watched, the boy's other hand moved in quick, short strokes over the pad of paper, too erratically to be writing. Sketching, Rhea realized.

The woman smiled, suddenly noticing that she was staring. Shaking herself out of it, she made to walk on, wondering faintly who the child was, where he'd come from, why he was hanging out here in such a bad part of town. Poor kid, Rhea couldn't help thinking.

She hadn't taken two steps when her eyes were drawn up again, this time not to the boy, but to the lanky young woman who had just clambered up to sit next to him.

Oh, good heavens, not her. It was Linn O'Conner.

Having been very nearly kidnapped by the teenage femme-fatale bounty hunter once before, Rhea had very good reason to stick around and make sure O'Conner had absolutely no ulterior motives in making that boy's acquaintance.

Rhea kept moving, sidling around a stone pillar to hide herself from O'Conner while managing to keep an eye on both the figures perched high above her.

[Keito]

Keito started, but recovered quickly and glanced over her shoulder to see a young woman on the beam directly behind.

"Ah, yeah. I just come out here to sketch sometimes." The paper was filled with rough charcoal sketches of various humanoid passerby - most from the last time she had drawn. Her hand continued to dance over it as she spoke, quickly filling in the rough contours of the newcomer's face in the lower-right corner. "Most folks don't think to look up when they're walking around. You're the first to notice."

She ripped the page of faces out. "Want it?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn slid around to face him taking the picture and looking at the sketch of her face.

"Yeah. That's good, kid. Where'd you learn to draw like this?"

[Keito]

She shrugged, turning back to the street. "Nowhere. Just looking at things, mostly. You just see where they should go on the paper... and you put them down."

Keito gestured to a drunk staggering down the street. "Like that guy. When he stumbles - " she swept the charcoal abruptly into a knee - "you make your hand stumble. It's not that hard."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn laughed.

"I've never been any good at drawing. I--" she cut off her sentence as she saw the flash of black and white hair by a pillar down on the street. She squinted at the pillar. A face popped into her head.

Rhea Kaylen? Linn shook her head. Couldn't be. She shook her head.

"How long have you been drawing?"

[Keito]

"Most of my life. So almost fourteen years, I guess. Probably less than that, but I can't remember a time when I wasn't drawing."

She'd finished the drunk (who had wandered out of eyeshot, anyhow) and moved on to a - couldn't tell, since most of the figure was hidden behind a pillar - but there were stripes of black and white in the hair, and the way the flickering neon lighting caught it fascinated her.

[Linn O'Conner]

EDIT

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea ducked behind the pillar, wincing. She was pretty sure Linn had seen her, though maybe she hadn't recognized her.

Rhea was growing fearful for the boy. Linn O'Conner wasn't...entirely sane, in her honest opinion. Perhaps not actually mental, per se, but dangerous, nonetheless. And Rhea had always been overprotective of children--unsatisfied maternal instinct, mostly. So she was becoming very concerned about the interaction taking place in front of her. She only wished she could hear what Linn was asking the boy.

Rhea gnawed her bottom lip, darted around to the other side of the pillar, and scuttled around the adjoining brick wall, edging along its crumbling surface to get a few feet nearer to Linn and the boy. Now she could catch a few words here and there; she strained her ears to listen.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn had lost sight of the person behind the pillar. She turned her attention back to the person in front of her.

"What's your name, kid?"

[Keito]

Better to play it safe. "I'm Thelen. And you?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled.

"I'm Linn O'Conner. You come here often, kid?"

[Keito]

Keito shook her head. "This is the first time I've been here. I move around a lot. Never drawn in the same place twice - I get bored easily, and after a while everything starts to look the same - you know, you've seen one bar, you've seen them all."

In fact, it had been the sketchbook that had led her increasingly deeper into the levels of Coruscant in the past year, searching for something new and unpredictable to draw. Around here, "unpredictable" usually meant "dangerous," but there was a certain grit and vitality to it the upper levels lacked. And still her sketchbook hungered for more.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn laughed again. This boy had it right. He knew what he was talking about, and Linn respected him for that.

"I've probably seen every bar on this planet, and not one of them are any good at getting me sufficiently drunk," the girl chuckled. "But, you're right when you say they all look the same. Eventually, people, names, places, things, they all start to run together. Eventually, you just quit caring."

[Keito]

"I keep thinking it'd fix things if I could just get out of here, but it's probably all in my mind. Don't have the right mindset, haven't met the right people, something like that." The charcoal hopped a little; a blaster dangled under the jacket of a slightly smudged Rodian, and the last page was now full.

"That's it for this one." Keito snapped the sketchbook shut. "I leave them around for people to find - that's the thirty-seventh - but I don't think anyone does. Just in case, though-" she signed the back of the drawing pad, then reached over and wedged it in the V between two nearby beams. "Now I have to get another."

She slipped the charcoal back in the front pocket of her bag and turned back to Linn. "What made you look up, anyway? Looking for something?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn brushed away some hair.

"I was involved in a fiasco with two brothers, a vampyre, and a dark Jedi. I've been looking up a lot lately. Maybe just to thank whoever's watching that I'm still alive." Linn smiled. "And then I saw you up here, kid."

[Keito]

"A vampyre and a dark Jedi? Man." She'd never seen either - then again, they wouldn't be the type to broadcast their presence. "Wish I had an fiasco like that, but my mother would kill me. She doesn't need to know, though. I'm going down another level for the next sketchbook - she doesn't need to know that, either."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn laughed a little, letting go of her cloak, forgetting about her blaster.

"That's always a good. But it's been years since I had to think of whether my mother would care or not. To tell you the truth, I'm very glad I'm out from under her thumb."

[Keito]

A movement under Linn's cloak made Keito's glance shift a little, and her eyes widened. Blasters were commonplace in this part of the city, but she'd never been this close to one before. Jeezit, you idiot, don't stare at the gun.

"Mothers do that sometimes. Mine gave up keeping me in school a long time ago - I hate reading. All the letters dance and twist around when I look at them. It makes my head hurt. 'Course, it's probably the same thing that makes my pictures move. To me, at least. So it's not all that bad - maybe I can go professional when I'm older... not that there's much call for that sort of thing around these parts.

"You, uh, stick around here much?" She couldn't keep her eyes off the blaster. "It's a dangerous place."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn noticed suddenly that her cloak had fallen away from the blaster. She was acutely aware of Thelen's eyes on it, and that he was uncomfortable with it. Linn reached into her cloak and took it out, handing it to the boy.

"That's what keeps me safe. You got one?"

[Keito]

"No." She turned it around in her hands, feeling the heft of the metal and the weight of its lines. "I guessed I planned on giving them a paper cut or something. Or running away real fast." She grinned sheepishly and handed the blaster back. "It sounds sort of stupid, I know."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn took the blaster and held it firlmy in her hand. Its metallic body shone in the neon lights that flashed every once in awhile.

"Not stupid," Linn said, letting the blaster hang from her finger by the trigger. "You ever shot one?"

[Keito]

"Never even touched one before now. Don't think I'd have the stomach to point it at someone. There's - what's that?"

Loud motor noises were coming from around the corner, and yells - then a crash, and smoke began wafting from behind the buildings, along with the faint smell of burning... something.

"Great, the one time something exciting happens, and I'm out of paper. I'm gonna go see what's up." She stuffed her knapsack in the V beside the sketchbook and slid to the ground.

OOC: The crash is whatever you want it to be, Linn.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn had no idea what the explosion was. She followed Thelen down and once they stood Linn kept her blaster out. As the two walked forward, two men came sprinting towards them running both Linn and Thelen over.

Behind them, Linn saw two Jedi running. Linn tensed then grabbed Thelen.

"Quick, behind this pillar!"

[Keito]

Keito didn't see why they had to hide. The first two men were hightailing it away too fast to notice anyone else, and the others - if those really were lightsabers in their hands...

"Linn, they're Jedi," she whispered. "They won't hurt us... right?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn chuckled nervously as they scooted behind the pillar.

"If they see me they will. Let's just say I know those two, and we aren't close."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea listened intently to what snatches of conversation she could catch. Accordingly, her heart and mind ran the full gamut of definable emotions--pity for the boy, relief at hearing he actually had a mother, incredulity at realizing the mother had no idea of where the boy was or what he was doing. She also became, by degrees, more and more uncomfortable by Linn's delinquent presence; so far, what she'd said made it pretty clear that at least she meant well, but Rhea knew that a bounty hunter was no person for a kid to be hanging out with. The boy should be home.

When Linn started talking about her blaster, Rhea had to force herself to stay behind the pillar. But she was very concerned. She had just decided to give O'Conner one more minute before she tried to chase the bounty hunter off, when an explosion startled Rhea so badly she screeched unconsciously.

Quickly the Imrani woman tiptoed toward the edge of the pillar to try to see what was happening. Smoke was belching from an alleyway, and suddenly two men burst from that direction, running full tilt away from the scene of the blast.

Rhea heard the boy's voice, much closer, say something about Jedi, and her ears pricked with interest. She poked her head out from behind the pillar as she heard Linn reply to the child. Rhea tried to spot the Jedi as she wondered for a half-second where Linn and the boy had gone off to--

So suddenly it gave Rhea another violent start, Linn suddenly flattened herself against the pillar and slid quickly sideways to try to hide, knocking right into Rhea.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn felt something soft, and very alive feeling behind her. Her first instict was to turn and blow it's head off, instead, she eased up on the trigger of her blaster, and whipped around.

She found her gun pressed to the forehead of...

"Rhea Kaylen!"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Well, here we are again, just like old times.

Rhea's heart jumped at feeling the gun jabbed into her skull, but as she noted the look of total shock on Linn O'Conner's face, she calmed down. Pursing her lips and shoving the gun off of her forehead, she quickly grabbed hold of the collar of Linn's shirt and yanked her behind the pillar with her, ignoring the hunter's squeak of protestation.

Directly behind Linn was the boy. Rhea met his large eyes, blinking in momentary surprise. She beckoned the boy frantically behind the pillar.

"Hurry, child, back here. Best not to be seen at all; then we can't be mistaken for criminals."

[Keito]

Keito scuttled behind the pillar, crouching low against it so she wouldn't block the view of Linn and the other woman, who it was obvious Linn had met before. She held her breath as the two Jedi ran by, apparently not paying them any notice.

As soon as they had gone by, she craned her head backwards to look at the adults. The second woman looked familiar - then it clicked.

"I've seen you before. I sketched you - up there. You threw your sandwich in the trash bin before you hid."

The inevitable post-accident crowd had begun to form, and there were quite a few beings of assorted species running past their hiding place towards the smoke smell. For the most part, they didn't look like folks Keito would want to meet face-to-face in a dark alleyway.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea didn't answer for a few moments, her head craned around the pillar to take stock of the aftermath of the blast. Then she turned back, shot Linn a warning look, and looked at the boy.

He was just a slip of a thing, kind of wild looking, with short-cropped hair and curious eyes. Rhea was surprised to hear the boy had been observing her, even more shocked to discover she'd unwittingly been his drawing subject, but she smiled a little at the young man.

"You're very observant. Maybe you'll show me the sketch sometime. My name's Rhea, and you and...your friend, here...look a little shook up. What's up?"

Like she didn't know. Linn was a Jedi-phobe; she'd just tried to run away from them and happened to drag the kid along with her, most likely. Rhea only hoped the kid would trust her and not bolt. The queue of ogling onlookers gathering at the mouth of the alleyway looked to be made of the very worst examples of the citizenry in this part of the ghetto. She didn't want the kid to get caught up in that bunch.

[Keito]

"I'm Thelen. We were hiding from... I don't know, but I think they're gone now. My sketchbook's up there, I can show you the picture if you want to see. Hang on..."

She bolted into the crowd before anyone could stop her and was lost to view for a few minutes. Linn and Rhea heard the beams overhead rattle as Keito yanked her bag and sketchbook loose. Then she was elbowing her way back through the crowd - swept along with it, more like. Instead of heading straight back to the pillar, she followed the herd around the corner to the crash scene. Once the human density had reached the point where she couldn't squirm through any more, Keito dropped to her knees and crawled between legs until she could see thick smoke and warped metal.

It was a dull gray vehicle with bright red paint. Keito felt a wetness soaking into her sleeve cuffs and pant knees. The craft had severed a water main as it charged into the building, and water gushed into the street and pooled around the ankles of the nearest watchers. Pink water.

The red wasn't paint.

Keito knelt frozen for a moment in horrified fascination. Then, almost automatically, her fingers dipped into the front pocket of the knapsack and closed around the charcoal stick. On the cardboard back cover of the sketchpad, she began to draw.

Some minutes later, a slightly wet (and pale) Keito arrived back at the pillar, apologized for the delay, and handed the sketchbook to Rhea. "You can look if you want; you're towards the end."

Then to Linn: "It's a crash. You probably don't want to see it."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn could see the look on Thelen's face. She was pale, too pale for just seeing a normal crash. It was the look Linn had gotten the first time she'd filled someone up with blaster fire. The look of death.

Linn nodded, but said nothing, instead, looking around at the crowd, then back at Rhea.

"Didn't expect to see you here."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea half-expected the girl to crack a wad of chewing gum and toss her hair after that puerile remark, so she took a moment before answering to flip through Thelen's sketchbook. It was very good, all cloudy charcoal that was more the embodiment of thoughts and emotions than an attempt at representation.

Rhea also spent those few seconds to study the boy; he looked positively ill. She had become concerned when she saw Thelen swept away in the mob. When he'd reemerged, he wore the look of someone who'd seen a ghost. Of course, that had only made Rhea that much more curious about what Thelen had seen.

"These are excellent, Thelen," Rhea said quietly, smiling at the picture of herself rendered in sweeping black strokes. She handed the sketchpad back to Thelen and stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets. She raised her eyes to Linn.

"I live here. I was eating lunch when I saw you two talking. I only just wondered what someone Thelen's age was doing sitting alone in this part of the city. And what you two might have to talk about in the first place."

[Keito]

"Mothers, blasters. Nothing much, really." She stuffed the sketchpad back into her bag. "I come down here to draw when I need to get away from home. Linn was the first person to notice and talk to me."

Keito wiped her charcoal-blackened hands on the dry part of her pants. She was still a little pale. "You guys have sharp eyes. I'm gonna have to work on hiding next time when I go down a level."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn looked at Thelen, nodding in agreement. Then looking back over at Rhea.

"I'm not completely uncivilized, you know. I can carry on an interesting conversation," she put her hands in her pockets. "You just happened to catch me at a bad time." She looked back at Thelen.

"I don't think you should hide your talent. You've got something going."

[Keito]

"I wanted to leave home, do this for a living. Maybe someday." She shrugged. "I always say that to put it off, but there'll always be reasons not to cut and run, so I could just keep doing that and stay home forever."

Untill something happens to shake me out of it. And I wish for that sometimes, but the odds of it - I'm a little too detached, too still, too adaptable, to be shaken out by much. Besides, that only happens in stories.

"Sometimes it's nicer to keep a dream as a dream instead of breaking it into reality."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn new the boy was thinking. Of what, she had no idea, but she new he was thinking hard.

"Maybe. I don't know, I've never had a dream I haven't broke into reality."

[Keito]

"Well, you got more than one, then. I just got the one. If it doesn't work, I got nothing left. So I'd rather keep it a figment of my imagination than gamble and maybe lose.

"And, y'know, home. Free food, free showers, free mattress. I don't stay for sentimental reasons."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn laughed out loud. That sounded way too familiar, and though she laughed, she knew the color must've drained from her face at least a little.

"Yeah. That I can relate to. My mother wasn't the sentimental type, either."

[Keito]

Something she'd said had hit home with Linn, she could tell.

"It's just me, my ma's sentimental enough. I never heard of a mother that wasn't."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn's laugh was hollow as memories of her own mother flooded back, and the hatred burned new inside her. She tried to hsake it off, but it wouldn't be ignored. Her smile quickly turned into a snarl.

"Yeah, well, my mom had issues with me," she spat as if a bad taste had suddenly assaulted her taste buds. "And I had issues with her. It worked both ways."

[Keito]

A flare of anger - very faint, very distant - burned at the back of Keito's neck. It didn't taste like her own rage; it was Linn's. Usually she didn't pick up on the emotions of people she didn't know, but Linn's anger burned close enough that it would have been obvious even without... well, whatever it was that made her pick up on people's feelings.

"Sorry," Keito half-snapped. She could see a trickle of her own anger welling up to mirror Linn's. Bad.

Right then. Hup. Keito snapped down the mental wall that separated her emotions from her intellect, and the edge went out of her voice.

"Didn't mean to offend you, Linn." She paused a second to let her own rage, detached, trickle back down into nothing - Linn's was still there. "Why do you hate her so? The burning - it doesn't do anything."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn was surprised at the apology.

"You didn't do anything," she said.

The question was an entirely different matter. She wasn't sure how to answer it. She didn't know if she wanted to share that information. She sighed.

"Well, my mother was a vagrant," Linn began. "My father...was essentially a rapist. He took advantage of my mother, and when he left her, she became obssessed with finding him. I was just an afterthought. So, she treated me just like an afterthought. She barely fed me, beat me, and so on. Eventually, she left me on some backwater planet."

Linn shrugged.

"And that's that."

[Keito]

The faint scalding had diffused to the almost-imperceptible simmer that was the trademark of an anger someone hadn't completely gotten over yet. Keito realized she had started to make a slight attachment to Linn. If she didn't want to feel that constant pressure, she either had to break that attachment or increase the physical distance between them.

She chose the latter, scooting quietly over so that Rhea was between Linn and herself.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn eyed Thelen's actions warily. Why was he moving away? Linn decided that she either scared him, or he just didn't like her. So, flicking hair over shoulder and turning away, she took two big steps back, and continued to let her emotions cool down. She threw the boy a look, one that she didn't know the origin of. But it was an odd one, her eyebrows knitted together as if she were solving a difficult problem. Linn just knew that she had to figure him out as quickly as possible.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea had been vaguely aware of Thelen's and Linn's conversation for the past few minutes as she watched the crowd flocking several yards away. She could see and hear water flowing, now, likely because of the wreck. She wished she wasn't so naturally curious; then she could forget about the accident and pay attention to the boy, who needed her help more than whatever unfortunate had mangled his speeder around a fire hydrant.

Suddenly she felt a shift in the immediate atmosphere and noticed Thelen shuffling closer to her. She threw a look over her shoulder at Linn's dispassionate face and wondered how the two had managed to get on each other's bad side in that short an amount of time.

Then again, it was Linn O'Conner. Rhea had never met anyone so brash.

She turned to Thelen, whose expression had become oddly cold. With a start, Rhea saw that the boy's heretofore rather bright eyes had seemed to become veiled, disconnected with the curiosity and vibrance that had held them before. It was an older, more cynical kind of stare, and it was frightening to see in someone so young.

Rhea tried, very gently, to send a small wave of comforting energy to Thelen through the Force--more a blanket of empathy than anything else. She'd always been good at connecting with other living beings, especially children.

But now, Rhea felt herself repelled from Thelen's mind, felt her outreach rejected. Maybe it was conscious, maybe it was not, but Thelen's spirit was shut off from her. That surprised her.

Well, if she could not comfort Thelen, she would have to physically aid him.

"Where do you live, Thelen? I am not sure this is a good place for you--or any of us, for that matter--to be at this time." She motioned pointedly to the growing puddle of grimy water and the people wading through it. The sounds of sirens were beginning to swell in the distance. "Perhaps it would be best if, for now, we return you to where you may expect some free food and a free mattress for the night." She smiled.

"And," she added, "I must agree with Linn. Your talent for capturing people, as they are and as they feel, not just as they appear, is extraordinary. I understand that you may not wish to risk happiness on such a long shot, but if ever you are given a chance to improve your fortunes, you should take it. And if I can help you with that, at any point or in any way, I will."

[Keito]

Rhea was right; their location wasn't exactly ideal. They waded off against the crowd, away from the crash. Linn was calming, but now Rhea - who was right next to her - was... worried. Concerned. It came down as a slight pressure on Keito's right shoulder. The concern was directed at her.

What did I do? the kid wondered. She cut herself off a little more. The pressure intensified.

"I'll be okay. Wasn't planning on going home tonight, anyway. Wasn't really counting on sleeping, either... I thought I'd just stay up and draw the night, but first I got to find me a new sketchbook."

Her hand rummaged about in the bag and came up with a somewhat smashed sandwich. "And look - free food. You can have it, though. I'm not that hungry."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea laughed and waved her hand politely.

"No, thanks. I technically already ate, though the peppers that ended up on my sandwich rather put me off my lunch."

Rhea could sense that Thelen was vaguely avoiding her, shunting her statements in a nonchalant manner. But that was fine. If the boy truly did not need her help--though Rhea felt fairly certain that he did need someone's help--then she would be wrong to force him to trust her. Besides, he seemed very comfortable with not only this part of the city but with rambling around it on his own. Still, Rhea rather wanted to make sure when she left Thelen, he was safe.

"You hang on to that sandwich. You might need it later. About that sketchbook: how do you usually get new ones? Just look until you find one?"

[Keito]

"I buy them in the upper levels where they've actually got art shops around. Sometimes I get pocket money; my family's not rich, but we're comfortable enough."

Keito unwrapped the sandwich. Five bites later, it was gone. She really hadn't been hungry - but this was easier than saving it for later. And besides, the egg salad wouldn't spoil.

"But I don't want to go back now," she said, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "All the way up there. It's too far. And not that things are bad at home, but I like staying out as much as possible anyway. So I'll just find a place to sit and watch things and... reconnect my brain up, I guess. Unless you two have other ideas."

The worriedness-pressure was still there. It had started to get a little bothersome. She shifted her backpack to the left side and rubbed her shoulder.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea nodded, watching Thelen wolf down the sandwich, becoming increasingly worried about the boy. She noticed him starting to squirm, rubbing his shoulder anxiously. In just that split second of time, something flickered over Thelen's face--a slightly worried, slightly irritated look that changed the facial features ever so delicately. Rhea blinked away the wild notion that the boy's nose and jaw weren't nearly strong enough to be a boy's; for a single instant the motion and the face belonged to a more vulnerable girl. But then the thought was gone, almost before it had registered, and with the momentary distraction Rhea allowed her empathetic Force-nudges to break and disappear. Thelen did not want or need them, and was acting as though he rather wanted Rhea to back off a little.

So she did. She smiled wanly and shoved her hands in her jacket pockets, glancing down as she did at her wrist chronometer. Yikes, she'd be late if she kept this up. She was trying very hard to convince herself to just let this chance encounter remain that and allow Thelen to look out for himself, as he seemed very capable of doing.

Yet, something about the way Thelen looked out for himself involved a sort of mental blocking that Rhea could not fully understand but that made her toy with the thought that, just perhaps, Thelen had some kind of Force-enhanced capabilities. It was a long-shot and very unlikely, to be sure, and Rhea had never before really properly "sensed" another Force-sensitive person. She didn't even know if that were possible. But there were very obviously things about this boy that were not noticed or even noticeable on first glance.

That intrigued Rhea.

"Tell you what, Thelen," Rhea said, pulling a ten-credit chit out of her pocket. "You be careful, if you're staying out tonight. And you take this--" She tossed the credit, "and buy a nice sketchbook someplace. I should probably be getting off; my boss doesn't like me taking long lunch breaks." She made a face and continued. "But if you ever need a place to stay or food to eat, and don't want to walk all the way back home, I live in the Plaza Cueva de Luce, and you're welcome by anytime. Just look for my name on the mail-slot in the front hall. I'm not very interesting to hang around, I'm afraid, but I'm good for free room and board on occasion, and I'm good at listening."

Rhea didn't concern herself with giving the boy directions to the Plaza. If Thelen had even a vague working concept of this part of the ghetto, he would know how to find the Plaza; the ratty old high-rise couldn't be missed. And that was enough to help out Thelen and assuage Rhea's concern.

She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't stick around anymore, but she dare not. She really couldn't afford to get fired over a long lunch break; she needed her job too badly. Rhea knew that walking away now meant that in all likelihood she would never see Thelen again. She sincerely hoped that was not the case. He was a good kid, Rhea felt pretty certain, and she wished she would be able to keep a little better watch on him.

But it really wasn't her place. Thelen had a mother, though perhaps not many friends. Rhea just hoped that if he ever felt like making a friend, he would look her up instead of hooking up with someone a little less respectable.

For now, she needed to get back to work. But there was just one thing...

"Hey, do you think I could have the sketch you made of me?" Rhea grinned. "Sign it, too, so that, when you're a rich and famous artist, I can gloat that I've got a first-edition."

[Keito]

Abruptly, the pressure on her shoulder lifted. What the...? Usually feelings didn't cut off suddenly like that. Flicked on, yes - but not off. She wasn't complaining, though. And Rhea was asking for a picture.

"Sure thing." Out came the sketchbook, out ripped the page. Keito signed it and handed it over to Rhea. "It's not a good one; too much shadow, and you were mostly behind the pillar - oh, and ignore the other drawings on the page, they're not so great either. Erm."

Keito knew she was being more critical than usual about her work. That meant she had inadvertently made a weak connection with Rhea, for some reason. Which wasn't all that bad. Rhea seemed less... volatile than other adults she was used to.

"Tell you what - I'll draw you another one sometime. Maybe I'll come visit you at the Plaza at some point." Wherever that was. She'd ask around.

The girl started to stuff the sketchpad back in her bag, but stopped. "On second thought, you just want the whole thing? I usually just leave them wherever I finish them, so if you want to give it a better home than on the street here, it's yours."

[Rhea Kaylen]

"Sounds good," Rhea smiled, taking the sketchbook. She was amused. Thelen had made her think that he did not care all that much about his artwork, but here he was picking out all its faults. Rhea was actually very surprised that Thelen had decided to just give away the whole book. She imagined that it must have been like her just pawning off one of her beloved journals, and she was shocked Thelen was so carefree about it.

Rhea hugged the journal to herself and nodded at Thelen. She needed to go; didn't want to, but had to. Her gaze slid over to O'Conner, who was leaned against an archetectural strut and was looking around moodily and silently.

"O'Conner."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn's eyes slid around to rest on Rhea without moving her head. For a moment, she studied to small woman. Linn hadn't been listening to the conversation Rhea and Thelen had been having. She was too absorbed in her own thoughts, and in the wreck only a few yards away.

Rhea had said her name very disrespectfully, not that Rhea really had any reason to respect Linn. It had been Linn afterall who had scared the woman out of her wits the first time they met.

"Kaylen."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea sighed at hearing Linn bitterly use her last name like a curse. Not that she had been much more civil. Rhea wished that the two of them had not started out on such a sour note--that wasn't Rhea's fault, but she regretted it nonetheless.

"Look, Linn, I have to get back to work now. You'll keep an eye on Thelen for a while, I feel sure." She smiled despite herself. "No more guns, alright? I wouldn't want to hear something...adverse had befallen either of you, and you really can't be too careful around here."

Linn could take that warning, if she were smart.

Then Rhea smiled at both Linn and Thelen. "Maybe I'll see you two around." Turning on her heel, Rhea swiftly walked back in the direction of her workplace, being careful to detour well around the crash site.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Unbeknown to the trio near the pillars, a male figure in dark armor was standing only a floor above them, watching the explosion with an expression of detached interest. The armor that he was wearing had a helmet once, but he found it cumbersome and somewhat annoying.

What interested him much more than the death of a couple of nameless beings, was the slight flutterings on the force that he could feel resonating from below him.

[Keito]

With Rhea's worry lifted from her shoulder and Linn's anger cooled off from her neck, Keito decided it was all right to reconnect her mind again. It wasn't hard; she hadn't gone far. As they watched Rhea melt back into the crowd, the light slowly crept back into the girl's eyes.

Odd. She was still more detached than usual. Keito could have sworn she'd joined up her thoughts completely. Someone else? She glanced around the level; it wasn't Linn's lack of emotion she was feeling, that was for sure. Everyone else she saw nearby had obvious feelings (mostly dimmed rage, crushed weariness, lust, or drunken giddiness) roiling within them, so perhaps it was her after all.

Now Linn was studying her silently, as if trying to piece together a puzzle with pieces she wasn't sure of. Keito guessed her earlier behavior hadn't helped her guise of being a normal boy.

"Sorry I shied away before," she told Linn. "It's just that I'm a little... hypersensitive to people getting mad. Whether it's at me or not. Happens a lot at home, so it's sort of... um, instinctive, the backing off." The girl grinned slightly. "Not that I don't like you or anything."

"Anyway, since I can't stay up all night drawing like I was going to, and... I'm not going back home, maybe I should just wander around and create havoc, or-"

She'd meant it as a joke, but stopped at the look on Linn's face. "What, you have any other ideas?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn tossed her head in a laugh. Something at the back of her neck was buzzing, and she was suddenly acutely aware of someone else here, close. No one in the crowd...no. Someone very close at hand, someone who could hear their conversation. She glanced around, then looked back at Thelen and his request.

"Havoc is my middle name, Kid. Ask that woman who just walked away," she jerked her head in Rhea's direction. "Wherever you wanna go and cause some, whoever you wanna annoy with it."

Linn glanced up, feeling in the back of her neck not going away. She leaned on the pillar, then looked back at Thelen.

"Maybe here isn't a good place."

[Keito]

"Maybe." Linn felt it too. So it wasn't just her.

Stepping away from the pillar, Keito craned her neck upwards. Something beetlelike flashed dimly on the floor above them, then - she blinked.

Though she couldn't see whatever it was, it was like having her mind reflected back on her - watching the thing that watches you. Surprise at having been discovered, muted by the disconnect between emotions and action; realization that the other person was doing the same thing, knowledge that unless you stopped watching the mirroring would continue.

The girl wrenched her attention back to Linn. "You're right. It's not." Let's move, she almost said. But Keito knew that wouldn't change anything, if the watcher was that intent on observation. So she turned back and spoke upwards, to the air.

"You know I know you're there." It was a statement.

"We're waiting."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Very good," replied Jyorn, as he jumped down in front of them, "but how did you know I was there."

[Keito]

"I looked."

Despite herself, Keito was tense; a little of the wariness was Linn's, but mostly it was hers. She noticed her hands were curled up into themselves with the fingers clenching the thumb; that was bad, Dillon said you could break your thumb hitting something like that. Her hands opened and relaxed. She edged closer to Linn. How did a bounty hunter deal with unexpected strangers hopping down from beams?

A feeling of cockiness washed over her, displacing the fear. So that's how you do it. It was stretched thin, but clearer now that she was quite close to Linn. And it was useful. She wouldn't detach yet.

"Were you stalking us for any particular reason? If you've come for the art giveaway, you've just missed it."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn noticed the child tense and move closer to its adult friend. He smiled, his posture one of complete relaxation. He let his eyes move over the duo, at the same time stretching out with the force.

"No, I was actually admiring the handiwork of one of my collegues," he replied, gesturing towards the accident scene, "And besides, you could not hope to draw me, for how would you depict the shadows. And I wasn't stalking you as such. I became interested in the slight force movements origingating from one of you two."

He let them feel the weight of these words and smiled.

[Keito]

Admiring handiwork? Slight force movements? This man, Keito decided, was either dangerous or crazy. Possibly both.

She'd decided to go for "crazy" and was thinking of another snappy one-liner (well, of course Linn was better at it, she'd had practice) when a calmness overtook her. Again, it wasn't hers.

"I think you're mistaken," she told the man, but her voice was losing its smart-aleck edge. "I'm no Jedi." She nodded towards Linn. "And I don't believe she is, either."

Keito knew, given the circumstances, there was absolutely no reason for her to be relaxed. That it, in fact, was a bad idea to be relaxed. But it felt... nice - at least to the other options she had at the moment - and was therefore hard to snap out of.

He was wrong about one thing, though. She'd already plotted out his portrait in her mind. And anything Keito could imagine, she could draw.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I too am not a jedi, and yet I feel the force."

Jyorn was in a state of perfect relaxation. Everything around him seemed to pulse with the living force as he extended his perceptions. He could feel everything going on around him.

Good she has not seen through my bluff.

This child was unwittingly using the force to gain a feel for others feelings. It was time to test the depth of her perceptions. He emulated the anguish that he had felt upon realising his mother's death and projected it out from himself.

[Keito]

Relax. Relax... float away, don't worry, relax...

She was too calm, too calm, this wasn't right-

Then the quietness exploded. Instinctively, her mind snapped back, flung itself away from her emotions, and his pain flung itself into her stomach instead. She flinched and pressed her right arm into her abdomen.

Keito was glad she didn't know the man. Though it hurt - a lot - at least it was a distant hurt, because of that. And the wrenching, twisting sharpness only ran across the surface of her skin; it wasn't deep, into her gut, like...

What the... he's acting? He's making it so - the... She could not comprehend. The girl reached for Linn and clung, hoping that Linn's proximity and whatever she was feeling would overtake whatever the man was trying to do.

"Get out," she whispered, both to Linn and the strange man.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

No. I have gone too far, Jyorn thought when he saw the kid's reaction. He immediately sent comfort and warmth to replace the anguish and fear.

No wonder the jedi council is taking so long to respond to my application if this is what I will do to a child.

He withdrew from the force completely, and waited to see if the kid was okay.

[Keito]

It stopped. There was a flash of soothing warmth across her, and then - nothing. Keito's emotions reconnected as violently as they had snapped apart. Now she was annoyed. And afraid. Mostly afraid. And it was her fear, not anyone else's.

Her grip on Linn loosened. She stared at the man.

And bolted.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn felt a surge of fear shortly before the child set off running. He ignored the kid's companion and tapped into the force once again. Every crack and inconsistency in the surrounding duracrete became obvious, as he made a huge, force enhanced jump that took him to the rooftop.

Calling on the force to guide him, Jyorn ran along the walls and rooftops, watching the child.

[Keito]

Keito didn't run far, just far enough to be lost among the sea of workers and assorted toughs. She felt bad about leaving Linn like that, but Linn was a bounty hunter; she'd understand. Besides, Rhea knew Linn. Sort of. And she knew where to find Rhea. That was good enough.

She slowed to a walk, letting herself be jostled about by passerby, going in the direction of least resistance from the crowd. Their movement carried her quickly towards exactly what she was looking for. She ducked into the bar, choked on the smoke from cigarettes (and various other substances) and tried not to breathe on her way to the bathroom.

Predictably, the bathroom was filthy. Thankfully, it was also single-person. She locked the door.

She could change; they were looking for a dirty-faced boy, not a middle-class girl, and it was better to be vunerable and unlooked for than safer and the subject of a search. But no; she looked similar enough as both herself and Thelen that they'd be able to tell anyway. Walking about as herself would draw attention in the lower levels; the disturbance would make it that much easier for anyone searching to find her.

Keito set her bag on the floor (now she was going to have to wash it when she got home) and sat on it. Something crunched in her pocket. Her charcoal. She'd put it there after she signed the picture for Rhea.

Sure, she'd look silly, and it was a long shot, but given the alternatives - she didn't want to sit in this bathroom any longer than she had to; the stench was starting to get to her.

Holding the charcoal in one palm, Keito crushed it with the fingers of her other hand. There were perhaps two tablespoons of loose powder; the charcoal was soft, the sticks were large, and she had carried a few spares. She rubbed the dust into her hair, her face, her arms - the sleeves were long, as were her pant legs - and what ankle showed between the shoes and pant cuffs.

Then she looked in the mirror.

Sure enough, it looked stupid. Attention-drawing stupid.

But not recognizable-stupid. Maybe.

She took the dress from her bag and withdrew a handkerchief from it, tying it over her hair. Now she looked - she hoped - like some sort of alien. A very dark... and short... and... strange-looking... alien. There were stranger things in the lower levels of Coruscant.

Bag on shoulder, Keito cracked open the bathroom door and breathed - even smoke-filled air was better than the fumes inside. Sliding unobtrusively to the back of the bar, she lifted herself up on the counter and put her head in her hands, watching the door.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

The kid was impossible to track by sight as she joined the throng of scum trudging along the street. Jyorn relied on the force to track her until she entered a bar; a bar that was no place for a child.

Jyorn jumped from his position on the roof opposite the bar, landing softly right outside the door. He reached out with the force, locating the girl. Once he had done so, he faked rcognition of someone in the opposite direction to where the girl was sitting.

He took a seat where he could see what she was doing. SHe had obviously rubbed her remaining drawing charcoal all over her to make herself unrecognisable. The only thing it did was make her look stupid. Stupid enough to draw attention to herself.

Jyorn regretted testing her, he regretted coming out of his hiding place to talk to them. But the force worked in strange ways. If he kept his trust in the force, things would correct themselves.

[Keito]

As she watched the door, Keito saw him drop down from above, enter the bar, and sit down. Agh. She pounded her fist on the table, leaving charcoal marks and somewhat paler skin.

Oh, great. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Charcoal rubs off, you idiot. She wanted to cry. This wasn't a good day. More because she wasn't thinking clearly than anything else. At least the crazy man hadn't seen her. Or at least he was pretending not to; the odds of him entering the same bar weren't that great unless he was tracking her somehow.

Furious at her own incompetence, Keito ducked back into the bathroom, locking the door. As she scrubbed (the dust wouldn't come entirely out of her hair, and she was probably missing spots due to the lack of mirror), she made a mental note to be wary of Force-users. Well, unless they were Jedi, because...

...all right, so maybe that applied to them too.

[Edit - in light of recent posts, it makes more sense to end this post here.]

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn made chase. Everything had gone by so quickly that she could barely comprehend things.

Immedaitely her blaster was out and she was on the man's heals, seeing Thelen ahead of him. She was acutely aware of where they were. She was sprinting and though she'd lost sight of them, she could tell Thelen had gone into a bar. Linn smiled. Her kind of place.

She slipped into the bar and saw the maniac that had followed Thelen. Linn slid through the shadows and to the bathroom where she saw the boy washing vigorously at his hands.

"Thelen."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

The woman that had accompanied the kid was in the bar now also. After watching the kid once again enter the toilets, Jyorn decided to attempt contact once more and then leave the girl to her own devices.

Predictably, it didn't go well. He went outside and took stock of his surroundings. Almost immediately he recognised his location; almost immediately his thoughts went back to his flight from Yshauvhu and subsequent crash landing in this very sector.

He knew that he was still being watched, so he pretended to jump to a place right above the door, before going in search of the crash site.

[Keito]

Keito spun around in a panic and saw herstanding there. "Linn." Her relief was obvious. The girl cracked a weak grin. "Is he gone?" She peered over Linn's shoulder; the crazy man was nowhere to be seen.

She stepped out of the bathroom and rubbed the remaining charcoal onto her pants. "Are all force users that crazy?"

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn had descended almost three hundred metres before Keito had even finished her sentence. He was speeding down the side of buildings, only just in control.

The landing jarred a bit, but he was unhurt nonetheless. Looking over the charred wreckage of his ship, Jyorn didn't think that there would be anything worth salvaging. He had never actually been here before, as he had jumped ship before it crashed through the platform, some three hundred metres above him.

He ignited his lightsabre, a weapon given to him by the Prietess, Valara Saar on Yshauvhu, and pushed it through the door, cutting a hole.

Deactivating it, he stepped inside. Almost immediately he heard an animal-like screech as a cat-looking creature sprang at him. He used the force to hold the cat in midair, before chucking it out the hole.

The main area of the ship was completely destroyed, but Jyorn hoped that he could recover some items from the shielded luggage compartment.

He descended into the bowels of the ship, searching for his possessions. He was beginning to think that everything had fallen out through a hole in the base of the ship.

"Oh well," he said to himself, "it was worth a try."

As he turned to leave he noticed a fallen cabinet that was wedged in a corner.

Prising it open, he was overjoyed to find several useful items there. There was a Charric Blaster, a utility belt that had belonged to his father, a cloak given to him by the Preistess, an armored backpack, an ascension gun and various other small commodities.

He left the ship, making sure that the cat thing was gone and used the ascension gun to return to the main street level. Once he got there, he moved quickly back to the bar.

He was about thirty feet from the entrance when Keito and Linn exited the bar. They walked quickly in his direction. Jyorn tried to quickly blend in with crowd as they got closer and closer.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn laughed at Thelen's inquiry.

"Well, the force users I've encountered are all pretty insane. But not quite like that...only mderately so," she said. Linn glanced around. She could feel the man was still around but she did not know where. She took Thelen's hand and quickly picked her way to an alleyway. "I think we should stick to fairly empty places. I don't want to get ambushed again."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn entered the alleyway after the pair. He called to them and raised his hands into that air, signalling that he had no violent intentions.

Knowing that his life was in their hands, he awaited their next move.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn whipped about, her blaster drawn and leveled. She looked through the sight and could see his forehead in the center. His hands were up and she had a clean shot.

"Don't move, buddy, or I'll blow your head away. What's with chasing my friend just a second ago? We got something you need?"

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

When she didn't lower her blaster upon seeing him, Jyorn knew that she still didn't believe that he was sincere. He retrieved his lightsabre from his belt and threw it to her.

"There, now you are armed and i'm not. Now will you lower your blaster?"

Linn lowered her blaster slightly, so that it was pointing at his chest.

"Thats the best that you're gonna get."

Jyorn smiled. This woman obviously did not know about electromesh armor.

"Thank you. I apologise for my behavior, it is just that I believed one of you to be a force user. I have since realised that you are not. I want to apologise, first for startling you, and second for my bahavior in general. I am knew here, and still have a lot to get used to."

[Keito]

The crazy man wasn't afraid at all, even with Linn's blaster leveled at his heart. He just stood there. Smiling.

He must really be nuts.

And spouting off about this Force thing, too. She might be young, but even she knew that such a thing was rare, so rare, that you could walk across the galaxy your whole life and never see more than a half-dozen of them, and then probably only as blurs and shadows of cloak as they ran by, doing miraculous deeds. Having epic battles. The stories said they could toss whole ships, bend people's minds over so they said what they hadn't been counted on saying, run straight at an army and somehow miss all the incoming blaster fire. Crazy stuff, magic stuff.

Not like her. She just drew. And felt what others felt, or tried to keep from doing it, and tried to keep the world still for a moment so it would just settle down around her, let her read a book through without the letters twitching about so that she felt like throwing up. Not the Force, just a curse with a couple fringe benefits that made it tolerable.

Unless she didn't know enough about it to be able to tell.

Or maybe Linn was the force user - though then why wouldn't the crazy guy have been chasing after her instead? Linn had obviously met other force users before. Keito filed the question away to ask Linn later. All these things whipped through her mind in the few silent seconds the grownups stood facing off. The stillness began growing too thick. So she broke it.

"Mister, two questions. First off, what gave you that idea? And what - who are you, that it'd matter?"

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I am Roj'yor'nuruodo. I was trained on a world in Chiss space by a priestess of the light side. When she died I came here. I was not trained in the use of a lightsabre, instead I was trained in the more spiritual uses of the force. So that lightsabre I gave you was useless to me anyway. I believed you to be a force user, but, as i said i was mistaken. As i have only ever met one force user before I am interested in meeting others."

[Keito]

"You might... ah, try the Jedi." She waved vaguely to the right. "Two of them went off that way, but that was some time ago. I think there's some Temple place where they teach and stuff. Maybe you should go look for it."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I have, but they have not as yet gotten back to me. Thank you anyway," Jyorn replied.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn sighed, picking up the light saber that had been thrown in front of her. She stuck it in her belt, and made sure Thelen was safely behind her before speaking.

"Look, friend, since neither of us has anything you need, and this lightsaber is of no use to you, why don't you leave us be. Unless there is another matter upon which you'd like to approach us," Linn said flipantly. It was her usual way to speak to stangers like this and she realized a little late that it was what usually got her into trouble other times. But the sarcasm was already out of her mouth and she could do nothing to take it back, so if this guy went postal on them...well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"It is of no use to me in a fight, sure. I prefer to fight with this," he said, getting out his Charric blaster, "and I wouldn't mind my lightsabre back too, if you don't mind."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled, her blaster snapping back up to his forehead. She shook her head.

"Blaster away, my friend. Then I'll consider giving you back your saber."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn smiled. He concentrated on both Linn's blaster and his lightsabre. Using the force he called them to himself. He caught the blaster and stuck it in his Charric holster. The lightsabre reattached itself to its place on his belt.

"It appears that the tide has turned," Jyorn said neutrally and then, making conversation, he continued, "do you know what kind of blaster this is?"

[Keito]

"Hers."

The guy might be crazy, but Keito didn't think he meant any harm. He didn't seem malicious. Just... not terribly graceful in social situations.

'Course, neither was Linn. But Linn was cocky, and the girl could pick up on that. Just temper it with a bit more politeness, and...

"Mister - Roj'yor'nuruodo (his name felt awkward in her mouth) - you're not from around here, so maybe in Chiss space force-users take each other's weapons when they meet, but hereabouts it's considered kinda rude. People get upset.

"So maybe if you'd give back the gun, and we'll go this way and you can go that way... I'd figure you'd be more likely to find your force-users. What do you say?"

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I was talking about this one," said Jyorn indicating the one in his hand.

Keito looked puzzeled.

"This is a Charric Blaster. It fires a maserbeam, a beam of energy that contains particles of solid matter. If you are hit by one, no matter what armor you wear, you will be killed. Now such action would be extreme, and would be used as a last resort, but if you force me to do so it will be very unpleasant for you. I would also consider it rude to have a gun pulled on me, though you don't seem to mind. Now, seeing as I currently am in control of the situation we will do it my way. You two are going to walk away from here. Understand?"
"What about my blaster?" Linn demanded.
"I might ... "

Jyorn was interrupted by a series of catlike howls. The rooftops above them were suddenly filled with glowing eyes.

"Great," Jyorn muttered.

He tossed Linn's blaster to her and used his ascension gun to climb up several stories above the creatures. Using his Charric, he picked off a few. They dropped to the ground where a stunned Linn and Thelan were standing. The rest fled once he had killed the leader.

Rather than return to face Linn and Keito, he left along the rooftops.

[Keito]

Keito walked to one of the charred corpses and nudged it with the toe of her shoe. It sprawled over, burnt black and still steaming. Feline. Largish, not quite half her size. She didn't know what they were called.

Strange, that such a large pack of these should have shown up so suddenly, and so filled with bloodlust. Was she getting paranoid? It was probably coincidence.

The girl turned back to Linn. "Thanks for coming after me." It was actually the first time she was glad someone cared enough to look out for her, instead of resentful of it - but Keito wasn't about to tell her that.

"I don't want to be a bother to you. If you want me to go, I will." There were a few things she was still curious about, but she didn't want to be anyone's obligation.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled, looking down at the bodies littering the ground and sneered. She reached around to the back of her belt and pulled out a small sniper blaster. She handed it to Thelen.

"I don't want you to go, kid," she said. "But I want you to at least carry it. Just pointing it at someone ought to scare 'em away, even if you don't know how to shoot one."

Linn walked towards to main street again, beckoning back to Thelen.

"C'mon. Surely we can find something fun to do around here," Linn chuckled. "I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this danger stuff for one evening."

[Keito]

"So have I," the kid agreed, tucking the tiny blaster away in her front right pocket. It clinked once against Rhea's 10 credit chit, then fell silent.

Night, or what passed for it in these parts, had come. The crowd was thinner, and the two of them easily made their way through the main street. A film of weariness had come upon Keito; she yawned and shook her head, knowing from previous allnighters that the second wind of alertness would come in a few hours.

"Linn, how do you and Rhea know each other, anyway?" she asked, as they scanned the neon street signs for some acceptable form of entertainment.

[Dillon]

Shouting and scuffling, louder than usual, came from behind the thin wall with the overhanging POOL HALL sign. The door crashed open, and a large, green fist emerged, clutching a shirt collar. Dangling from the collar was a boy, whaling away on the fist with a pool cue.

"...didn't so, you's the ones cheating, lying two-faced - " A violent swing shattered the pool cue, and the hand's owner yelled something unprintable and dropped the boy, retreating behind the door. The youth leaped angrily to his feet and ran back towards the entrance, clutching the broken cue.

"You owe me 200 creds! And a new cue!" The door slammed in his face. He threw the useless splinters against it, groaned, and forced himself to stop sulking in time to turn around and do a double take.

"Hey! That's my shirt you're wearing," he said to the younger of the two.

[Keito]

"Yep. Thanks for the loan."

She wasn't entirely surprised to find Dillon here. Anyplace he wasn't supposed to be, there he was.

"I won't tell if you don't."

[Dillon]

So his kid sister was gallivanting around the bad part of town. With a strange woman. Dressed as a boy. In his shirt.

Well, he'd done worse.

"Oh, I won't tell. Thelen." She kept his secrets, he'd keep hers.

Dillon strode up to the pair. The resemblance between the two kids was unmistakable; the boy stood only an inch higher than the girl (two inches with the cap), though he was more than two years older. Short for his age, but wiry and strong. And pent-up. If he seemed on the verge of explosion, that was normal.

"You look a mess, kid. Go wash off your face." Then, to the lady, with a sweep of his cap: "Evening, ma'am, name's Dillon. How'd you get caught up with my punk of a brother here?"

[Keito]

"I'm not a punk." She sounded a little hurt. "She saw me drawing and we started talking." And another lady joined us after the crash, but we were chased by a maniac in armor who kept saying some nonsense about the Force... but what Dillon didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Change of subject. "You don't even have 200 credits to gamble."

[Dillon]

"Won anyway. What they don't know won't hurt them." Not that he'd gotten the money. And if he'd lost... the balisong in his back pocket was there for a reason. What Keito didn't know wouldn't hurt her, either.

"If you were looking for something to do, I'd recommend against that particular pool hall. Unless you like rigged games." Boy, but she seemed more tense than usual. Energy was seething around her, and it usually wasn't.

"So. Squirt. Care to tell me about your day? I miss out on something?"

[Keito]

"Nothing you need to know about." I'll tell you later. Her brother always seemed to know when something had gone on.

"Linn, this is my no-good brother, Dillon." The insult was obviously affectionate. "Dillon, Linn. And no, she doesn't want to gamble with you."

[Linn O'Conner]

The boy had all but appeared in front of them with no warning or word. Linn watched him carefully for a moment as Thelen and he conversed for a moment. Then he turned to her.

Evening ma'am, name's Dillon. How'd you get caught up with my punk of a brother here?

Linn cocked her head as Thelen and Dillon continued to banter, then Thelen turned to her.

Linn, this is my no good brother, Dillon. Dillon, Linn. And no, she doesn't want to gamble with you.

Linn smiled.

"So you guys are brothers, ey?" Linn stuck out her hand to Dillon. "Linn O'Conner. So you gamble a little?" Linn winked. "Sounds like my kind of kid. What kinds of fun can we get into? I only know of a few places, but you guys wouldn't be interested."

[Dillon]

Dillon shook the outstretched hand, giving his sister an I-told-you-so look.

"Might be interested, though I only gamble on a sure win - top flight at darts and pool, not so hot on cards. Take a couple o' dares from drunks swaggering around topping each other's brags." (Well, he'd taken two. That counted as a couple.)

"'Course, collecting the money's a different story. You know of a good collection agency? Godda-" WHOA! KID SISTER LANGUAGE ADVISORY! "-arn it to heck (wow, that sounded dumb), I need to learn how to fight so I can beat those credits out of those... those..." He searched for audience-appropriate descriptors, but found none. "...folks that owe me money," he finished lamely. Damn. Keito made it hard to speak in coherent Basic.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Following his escape from the cat-things, Jyorn returned to the territory of the Lost Ones, a group that he had joined after his crash landing.

He would stay here until he recieved word from the Jedi council.

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna flopped down on her bed in the small appartment in Lower Coruscant.

She looked around with her keen brown eyes, frowning with distaste at what she saw. Garbage, wrappers, dust, computer equiptment. It was all laying around this appartment.

She frowned at herself, wanting to cry. After a hard day at working at a nearby diner and coming home to this dingy hell hole she felt like crying. Her brother didn't even try! He didn't even try to clean up or attempt to make their life better.

She was eighteen, old enough to take care of herself, but when she thought of the galaxy, it made her feel so small and insignificant... She didn't have much other than her small job which payed meager wages and her brother.

Her mother and father had left them in a diner one day, when she was only three and her brother was seven. She would never forget that day... as long as she lived. Her parents had been arguing about something. Money she had assumed as she grew up to understand the way of life. When all of a sudden a speeder ran aground just outside the diner. It had somehow missed her mother, but hit her father, killing him instantly.

Her mother who had been in shock had fled the scene, leaving the kids to fend for themselves as street kids.

Her brother had done the best as he could, finding a friendly man who gave them shelter in exchange of him going out and begging for money until he was fifteen and could get a real job. But now that her brother was in his early twenties, he had somehow landed a job as a smuggler and information guy.

She knew he had the money, she had known for years that he had. Only recently had she brought it up that they should buy or at least rent a nicer place in the higher levels of Coruscant.

She pulled the thin sheets over her small slim figure and looked out the slit of light that managed to shine from behind the dirty curtin from a neon lamp outside her window.

She frowned, biting her lip. She wasn't going to take this any longer. Her brother had to be confronted and pressured until he finally fessed up and moved them.

She sat up and ran a hand through her golden streaks in her light brown hair. She went from her room into the small living area where her brother had his gaze fixed on a holonet news report which showed a crash site, not far away either.

"Hayden, turn it off, I need to talk with you," Arianna said firmly.

"It can't be that important."

Arianna's eyes flashed dangerously as she bit her lip harder, causing it to get very sore.

"Hayden. I'm serious."

He sighed and looked up at his younger sister. "What?"

"Why do you always have to put yourself before the family?" She blurted out.

"What family Ari? We have no family. Incase you haven't noticed, look around."

"I have noticed. But not that we have no family, because we have each other. I've noticed from looking around that we live in a hell hole!"

"What are you complaining about? It serves its purpose."

"No it doesn't! We need a better home with better neighbours, who don't actually come to you in the middle of the night with blasters asking you for information. We need jobs, friends, transportation. We need what everyone else has. We need... a life..."

Hayden got up, showing his towering stature above her.

"You need a life, I need a life. We both need a real life!" She shouted at him.

Hayden took his hand and backhanded Arianna across the face. She reeled backwards from the sudden attack and fell on the couch, her eyes stinging with pain and tears.

She looked up at him, tears rolling silently down her cheeks.

"Don't you ever complain or talk to me like that again. I could have abandoned you long ago."

"Oh yeah?" Arianna stood up, tears rolling quickly down her cheeks, a slight bruise appearing just near her left eyebrow. "Just like mom did? You'd do the same?"

"Just like mom." He said in a firm tone, his blue eyes sharp.

"I'm going to abandon you then." Arianna said.

"You wouldn't do that. Right after you're done sobbing your little heart out, you'll come crying back to me appologizing."

"No I won't, I'll find my own life. I hope you're happy with yours!"

"Oh I am happy. Very happy."

"You'll be sorry when a nerf comes stampeding in here and rams itself right up your fat backside."

Hayden smirked at her comeback. "You won't last a day."

"I will too." She said firmly, angry tears of determination continuing to well in her eyes.

"Prove it."

"FINE!" She whirled around and stormed out of the appartment, slamming the door behind her so much that it shook the foundations of the house and nearby neighbours began shouting angrily out their windows.

Hayden watched his sister leave and smirked slightly. She'd be back...

Arianna strode off down the street, ignoring the shadows and creepy looking beings and aliens that stopped to gaze at her as she passed. She pulled her light sweeter closer around her, feeling slightly comforted by its warmth that it provided.

She passed two boys and an older young woman who looked like she would have passed as a bounty hunter or smuggler.

She passed the crash site and continued on, not really knowing where she intended to go or end up.

She stood in some shadows, looking up the levels. She closed her eyes imagining that she could see a perfect stary night on a perfectly landscaped planet.

She opened her eyes after a few moments and with a sigh realized that she was far from being able to witness something as beautiful as she had imagined. She looked over, getting a feeling that she was not alone here. In the shadows she could make out the figure of a man. She stepped back, slightly startled that she had been right. He looked like he was patiently waiting for something or thinking about something. She looked around, hoping she hadn't disturbed his thinking or anything. You never knew with people. Anger from some beings could be sparked by the smallest thing.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

After spending time above the lower levels it was impossible to confine himself to them once again. One thing that this whole excursion had taught him was to use the force to sense emotions.

He lay back on a rooftop, staring at the stars. Relaxing, he stretched out with the force, floating in its mystical power. Right away he could feel someone's emotional pain and anguish and sought to find this person.

He jumped lightly from the roof and walked towards her.

"Is something the matter?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna was startled as the man jumped down and walked towards her. She backed up slowly in a cautious manner. "W-why would you care?" She growled.

[Keito]

Keito thought of the small pistol sitting in her pocket. It would be a very, very bad idea for Dillon to see it. Knowing him, he'd probably charge back into the bar waving it around and demanding his money. She had no desire to haul her brother's dead body back home. She needed to get him to forget about the pool game.

"Dill, I told you it's okay to swear around me. It's not like my ears are gonna explode.

"If you want to beat up people, join the army or something. Or find someone - " The kid turned to Linn. "Linn, you're a bounty hunter, you know how to fight. How do you learn? Can you teach him? Or point him to someone who can?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled. She looked at Dillon. He looked storng enough to able to pack a pretty good punch. But he was also small enough to slip by any right hooks that happened to find its way towards him.

"Well," she began. "If you want to learn, I'd be more than happy to teach you some things."

[Dillon]

"Yeah," he said. "Oh yeah. Good thing to know 'round here." The young man rolled his head to limber up a little, bouncing loosely on the balls of his feet. Keito was just standing back with a whopping sigh on her face, so he slid over and gave her arm a playful cuff. "So hey, you should learn too. Eh?"

[Keito]

"Look, I don't want..." But her brother laughed, took her knapsack away, and grabbed her sleeve, so she let herself be pulled forward into the street. He wants to learn to fight... in the middle of a street with people walking by - she really should be the voice of reason, before Dillon's enthusiasm caught up with her, which it was doing already.

"Linn, sure you want to do this now? Should we move - you know, to... not the middle of the street?" Dillon still held her bag, holding it out of her reach, so she swiped his cap and tossed it over her shoulder to Linn.

"Don't have much use for fighting, really. All I really oughta know is how to get away from folks like..." The crazy guy. "...uh, muggers. And things."

Her preferred method for dealing with such situations was running away. Or hiding. At least it was better than being bombarded with whatever emotions the other person felt. It'd worked so far, hadn't it? Mostly?

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn caught Dillon's hat and put it on her own head. She smiled wide slipping over and snatching the knapsack and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Thelen's right," she said. She pointed over her shoulder. "That alley looks like a good place. Wanna try your hand at fighting me over there?" she said, winking at Dillon.

[Dillon]

"Sounds good to me." The cap was too small on Linn's head. It looked almost comical. Dillon's fingers twitched. And it would slip off easily; he'd have no trouble getting it back.

They strode into the alley, his sister following quietly and watching as Dillon kicked the cans out onto the sidewalk, clearing the floor. The boy scanned the ground, pronounced it satisfactorily free of glass shards, then looked up at Linn.

"Ready to go when you are." He sized up the bounty hunter, who stood over a head taller; his head barely reached above her shoulders. He was quick, which was an advantage, and in pretty good condition, but so was she - it was her job. And when it came to experience and skill, well... Plus Linn had weapons. Which reminded him.

"Heads up!" Dillon reached into his back pocket and tossed something over to Keito. "Better hold onto that." It was his knife. "And, uh, don't tell mom." He emptied the rest of his pockets against a wall - pool cue chalk, two lucky coins from some foreign planet, gum wrappers (with spit-out gum), two screws and a nut, a tab of paper with an address ripped off a "NEED MONEY? COME SEE..." poster, a pen that had run out of ink. Dillon put his fists up a little awkwardly.

"A'ight," he said to Linn, letting his arms relax into a looser, more comfortable position. "Now I'm ready."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn laughed at him then pulled off the cap tossing it to Thelen and dropping the knapsack next to a building.

"First," she said. She walked over, taking his right wrist and placing it in front of his face and lowering his left hand to his stomach. "Gotta protect the face and the stomach." She got into position herself. "Now. Throw your best punch."

[Dillon]

Left hand up, right hand down felt weird on Dillon, who was a southpaw. But it was probably good to learn both ways. So he stepped forward with his right foot, chin down, right fist jabbing out towards Linn's solar plexus. He'd intended to go for a full-out punch, but found himself pulling it anyway.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn raised his hands in a nonviolent gesture.

"Your thoughts are in a turmoil, i could feel you from there," he said, nodding in the direction of the rooftop.

[Arianna Starstreaker]

"You could feel my thoughts?" Arianna asked incredulously. With sudden shock, she realized what he was saying. "Y-you're a Jedi?" Her eyes widened.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Not yet. I'm just an initiate, but I had some training before I came here. But enough about me. What's up?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna shook her head, forcing a smile apon her expression. "I'm fine really. Just a.. a bad memory."

She looked away, and thought for a moment. "How do you manage to live down here happily?" She asked him finally, turning to face him.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I used to live much lower. But I actually live at the Jedi Temple now. I am sort of saying goodbye to the old neighbourhood. I know what you mean about bad memories. Its funny how no matter how much you care, your families always seem to be the source of bad memories."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna realized what he was saying and bit her lip, her eyes narrowing. "I didn't say it was from my family..." She said, her tone a little defensive.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I didn't say that you did. I was talking about my own. My father died before I was born, and my mother died when I was two. I don't even remember her face, or the sound of her voice of anything. So even though I care deeply about them, they will always be a source of heartache."

Jyorn paused for a second.

"So what's troubling you if it isn't your family?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna frowned, suddenly sad as the man told his sorrowful tale of his family.

She paused, not really having an answer. She sighed. "You're right, it is my family. Not that you could call him family... It's my brother. He's just such a lazy, mean Nerfherder." She sighed, running a hand through her hair irritated by the mere memory of it. "He doesn't want anything good for us. HE's always concerned about himself and his stupid job, if you can call it a job.. He's content to stay in the lower levels forever, while I'm... not."

She rolled her eyes, "I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I don't even know you..."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"My name is Roj'yor'nuruodo, or Jyorn. Incidentally I am guessing that the red mark on your cheek isn't sunburn," said Jyorn, holding out his hand.

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna was a little taken aback. As a bit of the street lamp shone apon him, she realized that he was a Chiss. That might explain it...

"I'm Arianna." She frowned, hearing about her cheek. She put a hand to it and felt a tingle of pain along it. She bit her lip and sighed. "No, I don't get too much sun living down here..." She continued biting her lip, contemplating whether or not she should tell him just how she had gotten the mark that burned and felt red hot whenever she touched it. "I-I just ran into something on my way to work today. It's nothing... really." She murmered. Down here in the lower levels of Coruscant, you never knew who you could trust...

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn looked intently at her for a moment more, before letting his expression clear.

"Okay. Are you sure you're alright? It looks like someone's hit you."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna sighed, looking down at the ground. Well it seemed he knew already. so she might as well tell him the truth. "I-it's alright. Just a little mark. Me and my brother had an argument. And he didn't really like what I had to say... But I'm ok, really."

She began thinking of how she could change the subject. "Where are you from?" She knew it sounded lame, but she was just trying to forget about Hayden and the incident for as long as she could.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I am from a world in Chiss space called Yshavuhu. Have you heard of it?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna bit her lip, thinking hard. She heard of many worlds in the galaxy from customers who came into the diner where she worked... but there were so many billions of planets. She shook her head. "I'm afraid I haven't."

[Linn O'Conner]

-Two Hours Later-

"You're pretty good, kid," Linn huffed as she sat down on the ground. "Not bad. You'd do pretty good against any grown guy. You've worn me out." Linn chuckled, winking at Dillon.

[Dillon]

Dillon just leaned back and stretched out on the ground, breathing and breathing. Linn was a very, very skilled fighter, and while tired, looked considerably less battered about. He couldn't help but think she'd gone a little easy on him, and was quite sure he didn't want to be on the other end of a bounty, ever. Especially if she had weapons.

Dill's knuckles were raw and he was pretty sure his ankle was going to be swollen come morning. But he'd stopped pulling his punches (and very quickly, too). Plus he'd learned how to drop low and use leverage to swing bigger guys to the floor, which would come in handy against certain...

...yeah.

The compliment lifted his spirits a little, though. "Thanks," Dillon said. Huh. Pretty good.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled. She saw a spark in Dillon's eyes and knew he'd taken the 'pretty good' comment harder than she'd expected. Linn nodded, raising her leg up and rolling up her leather pants to inspect a rather nasty bruise he'd inflicted upon her thigh.

"You could take out most of the guys I've fought with and I wouldn't say they're exactly pansies," she smiled at the bruise and lowered her leg. "You got guts and brains."

[Keito]

"Thanks for teaching him, Linn," said a quiet voice from the corner.

Keito uncurled from under Dillon's jacket, from which she had been observing the lesson. It exhausted her and energized her at the same time. She folded the coat and placed it neatly on the ground, stood up, and stretched.

"If we've worn you out, the least we can do is get you some din- er, breakfast... whatever it's time for now." Over the last few hours, she had decided that Linn was someone they could trust. "There's always crash space at our house, if you want to rest. And food. Mom runs a diner. Dillon can take you there."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn nodded, hoisting herself up on her good leg and offering a hand out to Dillon. She stretched, leaning down and securing her pant legaround her thigh with a small buckle that attatched itself to the leather. She pulled a small bit of leather tied to her blaster holster off and pulled her hair back, tying the strip around it. Linn searched her pockets for credits and smiled.

"You know, I could use a strong drink. Your mom have anything at this diner of hers?"

[Dillon]

Dillon took the outstretched hand and snapped (a little gingerly) back to his feet. "Beer, no. But there's a spicy sausage chili that's just as mind-altering as alcohol. Not that I know from experience," the boy added hastily.

He picked up his folded jacket, shook it out, and scooped up his trinkets, refilling the pockets of his coat and pants. "So." He set off towards the lifts, leading them at a brisk walk and limping slightly.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn followed, limping as well, cracking her fingers, and rolling her arms about, atempting to work the sudden soreness out of them. Dillon, ahead of her, looked a little worse for wear, but very well. Better than most of the older guys she'd fought before. And he'd beat her pretty good. She smiled. He woudn't have any trouble keeping himself safe.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I am not suprised. The Chiss are very secretive about where their worlds are. Are you from around here?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna sighed deeply, brushing a strand of hair from her face. She nodded. "Sadly... I am."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Why sadly? Isnt it a good thing that you can still visit the places that you know?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna shook her head, laughing lightly, although not feeling any happiness while she laughed. "Not when you're from the crappy dumps like this..." She pulled her sweater around her, feeling a little chilly.

She looked up where the sky would be, if she were living in Upper Coruscant anyway...

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn noticed her staring at the sky.

"The stars aint that great. Other worlds are just as crappy as this one. Such is the curse of our life."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

"Stars are better than nothing. It's the stars that my hopes are on." Arianna whispered, mentioning more than she should have. She bit her lip, wondering why she was saying all of this to a complete stranger.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

Jyorn sensed a subtle change in her mood. She went from confused, hurt and angry, to more serene and hopeful.

"I suppose it depends on where the stars take you. They brought me here, but killed my family. All in all I think I have done well. I have the chance to meet more of my own kind. Maybe that chance is out there for you too."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna nodded, her mood brightening a little from hearing his hopeful words. "It would be nice if it came soon."

She sighed. "I wish I could wrestle my destiny by the horns, but it's kinda hard when you live in a dumpy place like this..."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Well why don't you leave? Get a job somewhere in the upper levels?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna shrugged sheepishly. "I-I can't. You can't trust anyone here to give you a ride up to the Upper levels. And the path on foot is way too dangerous... I hear that people try and die on the journey all the time."

She bit her lip. "I-I don't know what to do."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I will escort you. Nobody would be stupid enough to pick on a Jedi. Well i hope not anyway."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

"Really? You'd do that?" Arianna asked hopefully as some hope rushed into her like a damn that had built up her emotions. The damn had just burst and instead of saddness, happiness and hope rushed out.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Yeah sure," Jyorn replied.

He felt her emotion as he said this. She seemed to have been bottling up her emotions up until this point, and it seemed that they had all rushed forward at this point.

[Arianna Starstreaker]

"Oh... when you're not busy of course. I didn't mean to interrupt you or anything." Arianna murmered politely.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I'm down here do purchase a speeder. There is a dealer here that has one for me for a very reasonable price. After I get that I can give you a lift."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna tried to not show too much elated happiness. That would seem cheesy. She nodded. "That'd be great. Thanks." She managed a small smile.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Do you want to come with me to the dealer or fetch your stuff from your apartment and meet back here?"

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna sighed, shaking her head. "I don't have anything I want back at the apartment so I'll come to the dealer."

Not that I'd easily go back even if I did have anything I wanted... She thought to herself, remembering Hayden when she spoke to him before she had left...

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Okay, its this way."

The two walked in relative silence until they got to a shop near an entrance to the underlevels. The sign above the door read "Nigel's AirSpeeders".

"Hey nige how are you doing," said Jyorn, walking over and shaking hands with the owner.
"I'm pretty good Ro."
"Have those manikons been leaving you alone."
"Well there aren't really that many left thanks to you guys. But yeah the remaining dozen or so are staying well away."
"Thats good to hear. Listen have you finished the modifications on the Laf two fifty?"
"Yeah sure. Finished 'em yesterday. Your two seat monster is ready to roll."

He led them out the back of the shop to a garage. In the middle sat what looked like a starfighter.

It was painted black with gold streaks running along both sides. Two stubby wings sat either side of what looked like a rudder mounted on the rear.

"Excellent," said Jyorn, "how much do you want for it?"
"For you, my friend, I charge nothing. The amount of business i get now that the manikons are gone is incredible."
"Okay, thanks a lot. Remember if you need anything, call me."
"Sure."

The two shook hands and Jyorn jumped in.

"Come on, get in," said Jyorn to Arianna, indicating the seat beside him.

They shot out of the garage and up towards the upper levels.

"Are you sure you don't want to swing by your apartment? I'm sure your brother will worry about you if he doesn't know where you are."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna followed the Chiss, feeling the slightly awkward silence slice through the dark air that hovered around them, threatening to choke the life out of Arianna if she didn't do anything to stop it.

She saw the lighted sign above the door and stepped inside. Seeing the two friends converse, she decided to check out a few of the speeders. She was surprised at the condition of many of them. They seemed almost like new... and for down here in some of the lowest levels of Coruscant, that was very hard to get.

Seeing that they were heading to the garage, Arianna followed them, checking out the speeders as she went. She gracefully hopped into the speeder beside Jyorn.

Her hair was blown back and she felt a sudden rush of freedom...

She shook her head, smiling. "No, he'll be expecting me to do that. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction. Besides, in a couple days, he'll easily forget about me."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"Okay, if you're sure. Hang on."

He hit the thrusters, shooting up towards the upper levels, and the Temple of the GJO.

"Did you have anything in mind for what you want to do up here," he said as he joined a line of traffic.

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna nodded. "I want to sing. I want to be a well-known singer." She sighed. "I'm not sure I have what it takes but I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure I can get there... Even if I have to buff tables for a few years..."

She shrugged sheepishly. "A stupid, pointless dream, I know... It's what my brother was always telling me."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I thought you were leaving your brother's attitudes and opinions back there," said Jyorn, indicating the lower levels.

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna sighed and ran a nervous hand through her hair. "I-I know that I said that... But it's just..." She trailed off, looking away for a moment, before turning to face the Chiss.

"How can you think that a poor, young girl who used to work in a bar, has a chance of making it big time? I mean.. it's just so... far away..."

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"It is good that you know what it is like to have nothing. YOu can sympathise with all the poor fans that you are going to have," said Jyorn, tipping her a wink.

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna nodded. "I guess you're right." She managed a small smile as she caught the wink from the corner of her eye. "Although I'm not sure how to start out..."

She paused, looking out of the speeder as strands of hair blew into her face. She tucked the stray ones behind her ears. "How did you become famous or well known?" She asked, looking back at the male Chiss.

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"I crashed a starship through the street into the underworld," said Jyorn, a reluctant grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, "and I joined an underground group called the Lost Ones. Also I can use the Force, so that naturally meant that I would attract a lot of attention."

[Arianna Starstreaker]

Arianna smiled. "Wow... that's a pretty smashing way to make yourself known." She nodded, then bit her lip thoughtfully. "How do you stay hidden if you attract so much attention?"

[Roj'yor'nuruodo]

"The Force is always helpful, and I learned a lot about stealth from the Lost Ones."