What's that?

[Soen Spellflinger]

Soen is out. He's feeling frustrated with his teacher, what he's being taught, and the demand placed on him by his mentor. He's also sick of the planet where he was living, and so has come back to Coruscant for a break.

The boy has been wandering the parks and shopping centers, revisiting all his old haunts and performing the occasional parlor trick for anyone who happened to recognize him from his previous life as a magician. He's had a good day, better than usual, and now is heading off to find some place to spend the night.

As the sun sets, a creepy feeling settles over his heart. It feels like something's watching him. Periodically the boy checks around himself, but sees nobody. Night falls and the feeling gets steadily worse. He turns down an alley against his better judgement, desperate to throw off this watched feeling, and begins to hear footsteps from behind as he gets into the alley. He turns around, seeing nothing as before, but this time an idea is occurring to him. He turns and walks a few paces, hearing the steps from behind, and sighs with relief. He knows this. This happens to him sometimes back at his new home, and a few times when he'd be lviing in an abandoned building here on Coruscant. It's a spirit haunting him, one he learned about as a child, that can be turned away with a simple chant. Mr. Peito is its name. He puts his hands together in front of his face and bows his head, shutting his eyes tight.

"Mr. Peito, sir, please walk ahead of me."

There, that should do it.

[Linn O'Conner]

That had quite possibly been the oddest thing Linn had seen for awhile.

As she had sat atop a building, she'd caught sight of someone that interested her. Mostly because of the odd magic that seemed to float around him. So she'd followed his movements watching him closely. He had turned into an alleyway looking cautiously behind him every now and then.

Linn had needed to duck away once or twice to avoid him catching her. However, she suddenly caught sight of something that looked suspiciously like a ghost following him. He had sighed, bowed his head, said something and it had disappeared.

"What the heck..." Linn breathed.

[Soen Spellflinger]

Soen smiles as the footsteps fade and continues on, but the idea that someone was watching him just can't be shaken from his mind. He turns at last, looking in and behind all the dumpsters, slamming the lids down as his frustrations builds.

"WHO'S WATCHING ME?" he yells, turning at last to the rooftops. He strides up and down the alley, ignoring the return of the echoing footsteps behind him.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn watches as he begins searching then bursts out.

"WHO'S WATCHING ME?" Linn shrank back into the shadows, watching him closely. She didn't want to scare him, he just intrigued her. Linn continued to eye him, keeping in the darkness.

[Soen Spellflinger]

He doesn't see anything. He screws up his eyes and puts his hands together, reciting the charm again. The footsteps fade away, but don't disappear. It sounds like they're above him now, on one of the rooftops. His friend has found someone else.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn could hear someone behind her and looked around. She saw nothing, but an uneasy feeling had settled into her stomach. She looked back down, not able to shake the feeling.

[Soen Spellflinger]

In a move that he may never replicate again, Soen leaps up to the top of the building, landing a few paces away from Linn.

"You. What are you doing watching me?"

Soen is small, wearing white and grey robes that make him resemble a priest. Normally he isn't threatening, but rather seems quite amiable, if a bit downtrodden. Now though, with a glare fixed on his face and his staff raised, he might just look like a guy you don't want to mess with.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn jumped backwards, landing with catlike precision on the side of the building, her pine green cloak fluttering around her. He had frightened her when he'd jumped up so quickly, but as she regained herself, she stood to her full height and smiled.

"You're very interesting."

[Soen Spellflinger]

"Really," he answers tersely, jaw quivering as he bites back an additional comment. Instead he lowers the staff, takes a deep breath, and asks with forced calmness, "Why do you suppose that is?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn shrugged. She really didn't know why she found him so intriguing, but she did.

"Maybe because you're mysterious, maybe because you were walking alone. There could be a million reasons why."

[Soen Spellflinger]

He doesn't hear the mysterious part. "Because you were walking alone" has sparked his interest.

"Going to mug me, I expect? You wouldn't be the first to do it, but you will be the first to fail!"

He points the staff at her, jaw quivering as he clenches his teeth, and fires a tiny ball of fire at her feet for a warning shot.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn easily jumped over the ball then laughed out loud.

"Look, I don't want to mug you. I try not to mug if I can avoid it," she said, looking him over. "But you are...mystifying."

[Soen Spellflinger]

The tiny fireball expands, blowing away part of the roof with a roar that drowns out "I don't want to mug you". The rest of it is bent out of context by his own paranoia.

"If you can help it, you try not to. I can imagine how often you manage to help it, Miss Mugger!"

There's no further attack yet. His fear is melting away into anger. That's what his master says will best fuel his fire.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn let the wind blow over her for a moment. She watched the person in front of her and sighed.

"Look, I have mugged exactly five times in my life. And many of them were in my youth," she waved her hand vaguely. "you've nothing to worry about."