So what's next? A party? >Zasabi<

[Zorua Silver]

She awoke on the transport, a rumble shifting her sleeping position quickly to near faceplant across the cold metallic base of the cargo hold. With the catch she barely made, she pushed herself away from the painful potential, and lifted herself from the ball she had curled up in, to her knees, and eventually to her feet. Her bell shoes kept her motions quiet, but everything silenced as she froze upon hearing the cargo door creakily slide open. Crap! the Angel hybrid modestly cursed inwardly. Moving slow, she crouched back down, allowing her pointed ears to scout what she could as she sought whatever next move she could to avoid being seen. That crate just to the left of her looked promising, she just had to stay low. Luckily enough, the cargo workers were beginning to unload the shipping equipment on the other side of the hold, and she kept her ears peeled as she softly crept towards her next hidey hole. Long robe bottom muffled any movements, and so long as she didn't awkwardly step on anything loud or crunchy, she should be okay! Peeking over the box, it seemed as though it was a pair of Gammoreans unloading, as the tusks and snout silhouettes kind of gave it away. They hoisted massive boxes on their backs, two of them, and began to step through the only hole in the cargo box that had any light filtering through. Zorua didn't know how far they would have to go to drop off what they had, so she counted the time for them to return. Ensuring she got all of her belongings, she shouldered her backpack, and watched as they returned for more cargo. Plenty of time for her to sneak past them. It kind of looked like they were offloading on some kind of nice planet, as they weren't being too cautious on where they were putting the cargo, it seemed.

Waiting for them to turn their backs, she snuck up, stepping when they stepped, and the moment the pair were out of the container, she watched their first few steps towards a shipment dock, and leapt out, and took off as inconspicuously as she could. Stepping out into the world, she kept her head down, her belongings close, and kept a stiff walk that hurried through the crowds.

[Zasabi Ray]

There was something about lighting a cigarra that cast a calming haze over Zasabi. The motion, practiced through casual repetition in his thirty something years of life, seemed to center him in a way that the deepest Force-assisted meditations never could. A slow inhale, the closing of his eyes, the bitter burn of the acrid and flavorful smoke....

Thump

Coughing out clouds of smoke, the Theelin stumbled back, bent over at the waist as he tried to recapture the reverie that had been stolen from him. Someone had walked right into him and, despite the relative softness of the impact, had rendered him entirely helpless. Glaring through tear filled eyes, he settled a slitted gaze on the offending individual and tried to offer some sort of rebuke, but his lungs refused to cooperate.

"Who...gah...what...eugh..." He straightened, letting out a few more coughs before finally settling himself. "Watch yourself, kid. You'll kill a man walking into them like that." Taking a longer look at the girl, he squinted briefly at her. "Do I know you?"

He cast an odd figure, tall and lanky with a mop of green hair that gave him a slight resemblance to a thin tree. A slender finger tapped on a sharp chin, pale green eyes observing Zorua curiously.

[Zorua Silver]

A whumpt send her solidly back, her disheveled bun flopping to the side on impact, then the weight alone forced the platinum blond to spiral loosely down, a cascade of creamy white gold down a ill-fitted tunic sleeve. She gritted her teeth, and peered up to a tall sight, slowly climbing the figure until stinky breath forced her to look away before she could get to the face. Wrinkling her features, the delicate teen took her step back to cast a bit of distance between the two, and atleast get herself a bit of breathing room. Finally meeting the face, she clutched her backpack straps tighter, but they softened as her memory served her a glimpse of a night so brief, but memorable enough that the 13 year old had enjoyed it then, and the 17 year old chose it now to disarm herself a bit.

The hair was most memorable. She recalled the first time she had met the tall rich man, she was a pinch shorter, even more shy, and just as silently staring at it as she was now. Pretty green pastures laced his scalp in a mop of brilliant and homely verde shades, in a glimmer of deep emerald and jarring liveliness. It reminded her of the grass, a whole wide place of just living ground and earthly greenery. Then she had been captivated, reaching her childish hand slowly to the mesmerizing color of hair, and even now, in this present day, she did the same in the identical childlike manner, cerulean eyes stuck in wonder on the sea of green. She was a bit taller now, she said. She wasn't then, but now-

She had released one of the backpack straps to reach, but just the attempt alone was enough to make her think, maybe it was a bit too impersonal to just go touching on someone like this, whether you knew them or not. It was a mirror gesture of what she had done then to the very same man, maybe he would recall?..

Zorua pulled her hand back, not going so far as to touch him if she could. She withdrew, and out of nervousness, flittered her wings for comfort. They glittered a translucent but gold and silver lined shimmer in the light before a little half-step took her even further from the memory standing before her.
She had told him her name, and that being the only word he had heard from her, she mustered the courage to grace him with it once more.

She parted pale pink lips, met his eye so far up there compared to her 5'4 frame, and allowed the voice she kept hidden to dance just between them. From her Angel genetics, she had a voice that would have the tendency to be undeniably musical to those who heard it. Oftentimes it controlled how many felt about her, many who would try their hardest to hear her voice, again and again, as though that was all they wanted from her. She remained mute due to this, choosing to not have people attracted, even ensnared by her voice, if they couldn't appreciate her who who she was. It was a curse to her, more oft than a blessing. Remembering how it had stunned Buggie when she spoke her name to him, she clutched her bag tighter.

"Zorua..." wind chimes rung by only the most mastered of hands skated towards Zasabi, a promise of nothing but the most decadent and eternal love and promise that was much older than the child who wielded it. It was perfection, pure and careful in embrace, but so shortly lived, one could only crave to hear more to simply see if those promises could become reality. That voice that swore there was in fact light at the end of a merciless tunnel dispersed as soon as her lips shut, and was sealed back in their tomb, the jailer awaiting some response from the Theelin before her who had received such a sacred gift.

[Zasabi Ray]

Quietly taking the girl in, he finally had time to notice features that made her entirely unique from other humanoids he had seen. For one, she had wings, which was rare enough in the galaxy. Her hair was much finer than the clothes she wore, strands of blond silk flowing like a river at dawn. Something about her face had caught his attention, but he couldn't tell why. She was pretty, certainly, but this was more the allure of memory than aesthetics.

None of it stood a chance against the simple word that left her lips, however. He rocked back a step, eyes blank for a moment before he shook his head and cleared the mist created by those dulcet tones. This was no exertion of Force energies, or technical wizardry- her voice was simply one of the most beautiful things he had ever heard.

Get it together, Zas. You're looking like a glit-biter staring at this girl.

He coughed softly, attempting more to disguise his discomfort than struggling with the accidental inhalation of smoke from earlier. "Zorua, was it? Right. I'm sorry, you just looked familiar." He looked a little abashed. "I'm Zasabi."

Noticing the cloud of smoke still drifting near them, he frowned and snipped the end of his cigarra off. "Sorry about the smoke. Are you alright?"

[Zorua Silver]

She watched it overtake him, and even so much as felt it swirl in a miasma around his judgment. Almost predetermined, she rose a hand to her mouth, hoping to hide it, all of it, the whole lot of it, from view of her former acquaintance so long ago. She had felt so bad for even speaking. Zorua appreciated how hard he had worked to come free of it, and nodded as he asked of her status. She was fine, just lost. Completely unknowing where she was, nor how massive the galaxy was, she couldn't give him any way to communicate other than basic things. Pulling out a paper she had from when she was still with him, she showed it to Zasabi. It was a crude picture drawn by tinier hands, green and brown all over it as she had colored the figure on it to be as close as a 13 year old could. It was Buggie, and said so right under the drawing's main bust of him. She didn't do too good on his mandibles, so instead she tried to put a smile on him, because he was always pleasant to her.

She brought the picture close to her and hugged it, careful not to wrinkle it anymore than she had already. Then she eventually turned back to Zasabi, hoping he would understand her goal was to be reunited with the Verpine Master, and finish her training under him, if it were at all possible. Even just being back with her original caretaker was her goal. She missed him dearly, and apparently whatever they were doing in the teachings for her at the Enclave just wasn't sticking! She couldn't even pass her trail to leave!! No doubt they would be after her. Who knows? They might even kill her. Then she would never be able to get to Buggie.

[Zasabi Ray]

He felt a brief flush of shame as she put a hand to her mouth. His reaction to her voice had not gone unnoticed, it would seem. Still, there was nothing to be done for it now.

Watching her reach into her bag, she showed him a crude doodle of what appeared to be a Verpine. "Buggie," he read aloud, eyebrows furrowing as he tried to make sense of what she had to say. As she clutched the picture close to her, the message began to make sense.

"So, this... Buggie, he's someone you know, right? And you're trying to find him?"

His head tilted slightly. Why was she so trusting of him to reveal this? Normally he would assume that this was some sort of con, but something about her made the idea of her conning him almost impossible to consider. It wasn't as though he had a particularly trustworthy face, either- he had always considered himself roguishly handsome at best, or thin-faced and angular at worst.

Enough was enough. He could chase his own mental tail all day, but the only way he'd know for sure was to verify with the Force. He reached out, gently, and touched the gossamer strands of her aura with his mind.

It was a beautiful sound, as though someone had taken the entire strings section of an orchestra and put it in the adjoining room. Bright and clear notes of innocence and youth were muffled by the cloud of fear that he could see as easily with his eyes as he could sense with the Force. There was something else, however... an undercurrent of power that was unmistakeable. This girl was sensitive to the Force.

His eyes widened before closing, a rueful smile crossing his face. What was it about him that drew wandering Force prodigies to him? Either way, he couldn't just leave this girl to the whims of a callous galaxy. Force users weren't so common that he could discount meeting a lost student as mere happenstance. Clearly their fates had been brought together for some reason.

"Ok, I think I get a better idea of the situation," he began, brandishing the cigarra in an empty palm and mirroring the gesture with his other hand. "Is your friend...Buggie? Is he... like you? You know..."

He punctuated the question by levitating the cigarra from one hand to the other, hopefully avoiding any prying eyes or at least convincing them he was but a traveling juggler. "I'm guessing he can do this sort of thing, right?"

[Zorua Silver]

Zorua felt his own influence reach to seek hers, and it was a curious thing. Despite being around so many who were Force Sensitive, Masters of the Force, even, Adepts, her peers, other youth, it seemed as though Zasabi's was so much more different from their own. It was rough! Not a bad rough, but more of a raw, and calloused kind of deal, reminiscent to the Angel hybrid of a boulder that had been exposed to the elements for eons, and had been chiseled upon by water, earth, even wind. It was alive, and just so much more real than her own. The Arkanian Offshoot could only imagine what tirades he had faced to be so unchecked in the Force. Clearly, this was meant to be! Maybe that happenstance of her stumbling into the party so long ago was no mere coincidence! Her excitement could have flared tremendously, her glee at the realization that she was not alone in this shabackle, after all.

At his questions, she nodded as he withdrew his aura, and she leaned in as though his retraction was a leash upon her. She was close, and forbade herself from straying from his side, now. Zorua desperately didn't want to be alone on such a foreign place, and she certainly did not want to lose a friend. She did not know if he were a friend yet, but why snip a stem if it's only just begun to bud? Life would tell her whether he was in fact a flower or a weed, would it not?

The teen nodded, and placed her crude but well cherished drawing back into her bag. She wished she had the ability that Buggie had of showing mind-pictures, but she was no where near as advanced. She still had plenty of work to do, and the rest of her life, should the Force will it, to do so. The teen didn't know how else to describe the Verpine friend in his strength in the Force, but boy was he strong, and her nod was justly placed in confidence. Cerulean gaze met that of the Theelin's, and she pointed to his holowatch in a modest way. She only had so much time to find him before the rest of the Jedi order would track her down, and collect her first. Then her stomach growled, and her pale cheeks began to burn hot. This thick tunic wasn't thick enough to stop the noise from possibly being picked up by the whole galaxy! Zorua couldn't recall the last time she had eaten, but it had been a little minute. Sheepishly, she turned to Zasabi, almost apologetic that she was indeed mortal.

[Zasabi Ray]

He let out a small smile at the girl's apparent hunger. "Well, that's a problem I can address. No plan succeeds on an empty stomach." Tilting his head, he gestured at a nearby cafe and began to walk toward it.

It was a place of moderate means, the kind of cafe that sold everything at a 10% upcharge for the convenience of being near the spaceport. As such, locals tended to other, more reasonably priced venues leaving the pair surrounded with other spacers. In a way, it made the young girl stand out less, for once you've seen an abyssin poking at a regenerating digit, a humanoid with gossamer wings tends to be less impressive.

He ordered a pair of fruity concoctions for the two of them, settling into his chair with a thoughtful look that seemed hard to reconcile with the easy-going demeanor he tended to display. Studying her expression, he tried his best to do all of the talking. It was clear that her unusual circumstances were a strain on her, and as such if he could deduce the gist of the story he could potentially save her a good deal of grief.

"I'm not going to ask about your specifics, since I'm guessing your voice affects others much the same way that it affects me. I'm going to assume that this verpine friend of yours is a teacher in the..." He briefly paused before the corner of his lips curved into the whisper of a smile. "Arts. And you're his apprentice? You're on a tight timetable too, which suggests either he's only available for a short while, or someone's after you."

The pair were interrupted as the waiter droid returned, depositing their drinks and waiting politely for their order. Pausing, he waited for Zorua to make some indication of what she wanted.

[Zorua Silver]

She walked in with him, marveling at all of the sights that swam around them. She had only been allowed to see so much stuff through holovids; the net was very strictly monitored. So many different species of alien, humanoid, quadrupeds, even fancier looking organics other than herself! Certainly much more nicely dressed, no doubt about that! It made her feel so much less eyed as she walked into the establishment, him being even more attention than her, for once. When everyone was in uniform, others tended to pick you out for your differences. But when everyone was allowed to be different, there was nothing to pick out, unless you drew attention to yourself. She didn't know Zasabi had purposefully done this to evade prying eyes form their activity, and she figured this was just his regular scene. Zorua watched him as they walked, a clear fit for the man, all this luxury, he swam through it as through he owned the establishment. No one gave him any dirty looks, or even pointed at him and laughed for anything mean; he was a regular patron as all the rest were. And supposedly, the 17 year old garnered, so was she. She felt at ease by this notion, and it peeked a crack of confidence from the reserved teen, a glimmer of a grin poking forth before it was tucked back under pink lips.

Silently shuffling forward with the undeniably taller company, she sat adjacent from him, and was caught up with every single customer that came and left through the cafe. She didn't know the names for over half of these individuals species, yet all of them were so incredible. All sorts of life, and it amazed her so. Her sea-like irises sparkled with nothing but undying interest as every single organic! And the swell of life in them was also captivating. The Force truly was wonderful. The Theelin spoke, smooth voice no longer baked and broken by the harsh smoke, and she turned her eyes back to him, giving pause to the delicious elixir he had bought for her. Somehow, he took everything she was hoping he's understand, and well,...bring it together in a big salad. Surprised, she moved the glass drink to her right hand, and with her left, raised eyebrows, and clear wonder in her eye, she asked if he could read her mind with the motion of pointing at his forehead, and dragging it to her own, twisting the finger a bit for delving in her head. Was he able to read minds?? It would have made it so much easier to communicate, even if she couldn't project to him.

Once the droid deposited their beverages, Zorua even gave it a appreciative smile, before watching it give a programmed bow and wheeled away. Pressing lips tentatively with the straw, she made eye contact with Zasabi, and sipped slightly. Wow what! Her eyes widened even more than they had been, and she stared at the glass as though it was a newborn star that she held in her hands. Beebleberry and Juna berry were best friends with the Emerald grapes involved with this beverage, and Zorua simply was astounded! She didn't know what type of drink Zasabi had, and frankly she paid no attention, as she fought to not inhale the glass! It was unbelievable amounts of restraint, her sips.

The voices were calm, even jovial as they soared at their respective chunk of the cafe's territory. It was nice, and felt to Zorua that she had a hunk of privacy for the both of them, as though no others payed attention to their conversation. They were just two regulars, right? Zorua nodded, returning to their conversation after she failed to stop herself from a big gulp of the sweet juice, and got up to walk over to his side. She pulled her little sack from her shoulders, and opened the thin dull brown flap, pushed aside her second jacket, socks, and extra bottoms, to show something that glowed only briefly as she caressed it with her influence. It had the very same shade of Zasabi's hair, a miraculous emerald, but it was life, incarnate. It held distinctly beautiful golden trim with lovely flat folds, seemed cubeish, and if anyone was anyone in the Force, they would know exactly what that green cube thing was. She certainly did, and she cared for it so much. It was her only piece of Buggie, besides the worn out robe she wore, his robe, when he let her use it to keep warm once she was in his care. She loved it, and wanted to share it back with Buggie. She never let anyone know she had it, as she was told very seriously by the Verpine Master to keep it a secret, but to give importance to the situation, she had to show Zasabi. Right?

"Whenever you feel lonely, open yourself up to it, and I will be there. One day, I will be able to teach you from this. But for now, keep it close, and keep it our secret." Ever since, she had left it under her pillow, to cushion her dreams every nice, and take away any loneliness that would haunt her at night. Pulling herself from the memory, she closed the now dark bag, shuffled her stuff back atop the cube, and return to her seat, quieter than how she had been previously, now playing with her straw in the ambrosia rather than sucking from it hungrily. She missed Buggie, and their connection in the Force had long faded. Hopefully, she could find him. Hopefully he hadn't forgotten about her...she hadn't forgotten one bit about him.

[Zasabi Ray]

Zasabi suppressed a smile at the girl's wonder. It was clear that she had lived a sheltered life, one that made even such relatively casual settings such as this amazing in comparison. And yet, if they knew what he had just begun to gleam about Zorua, it would be obvious that she was the only Krayt pearl in this place worth noticing.

The smile finally escaped him when she raised a finger to point at his forehead, dragging it back to her own. What kind of upbringing had she experienced that telepathy was such a normal thing that she expected it out of other Force sensitives? "I'm sorry," he admitted with a chagrined smirk. "I never picked up the knack for that sort of thing. My talents are more...combative, I'm afraid."

He dismissed the waiter droid as it became clear that she perhaps hadn't the slightest clue what to order, making a guess at a simple salad. Overwhelming her with new experiences would only make discerning where they were to go from here more difficult. She at least appeared as some sort of near-human, and he doubted she was a pure carnivore. All of those thoughts were dashed away as she revealed yet another marvel- what was almost certainly a holocron packaged away beneath her neatly folded belongings. A mystical green glow suffused the interior of the napsack, drawing a small gasp out of the Theelin.

"That...explains a lot," he said aloud, starting to piece together some of the story. Clearly her captors were after her and her Holocron. Given that he had seen near holy wars fought by the Sith and the Jedi over such objects, it did not surprise him that such an innocent would be in danger carrying something so valuable. But why did she have something so valuable without a means to protect it? And why would this Buggie fellow leave her unguarded?

"Tell me, the ones you're running from... Are they Sith? Jedi? Or something else?"