Hot Air on a Gas Giant

[Magnus Ornsson]

Magnus had wandered off from Giza and her crew and towards the coordinates he had overheard being given to her. This is where he was supposed to meet a contact from this "Jedi Order". They were supposed to be a bunch of a wizards that could teach him how to control the magic that rippled through his veins.

The boy wandered through the streets, blaster pistol at his side and short sword on his back. Magnus was fairly certain that he wouldn't need the weapons, he was also certain that neither of his weapons would be useful if a wizard wanted him dead. After all, he had heard stories of wizards with red laser swords wiping out entire legions of soldiers using magic lightning.

Regardless of it that story was true or not, Magnus had decided to go on his own to this meeting. It was certainly a bold and some would argue a stupid move but Magnus didn't care. He felt like this was something he had to do on his own and he wouldn't have the first step towards his destiny any other way.

Magnus eventually came to where the coordinates led him. He half expected to see some darkly clad figure ominously waiting for his arrival. However, there was nothing, no one was there to meet him. Magnus sat down on a nearby bench, annoyed and frustrated, today was not going as planned.​

@Malon

 

[Asha]

When Asha was a young girl on Ifrane, her father had told her stories about legendary cities in the sky that were home to angels and all other sorts of mythic beings. There were no such cities on Ifrane, and she had all but abandoned the idea as a fable her father had told her to lift her spirits. But Yarith on Bespin was exactly as her father had once described these mythical cities. Yarith was a tibanna mining colony loyal to the rebellion, and had been ever since the Anoat sector had forged an alliance with the Galactic Alliance.

Now, according to a dispatch from Ner'Giza, one of Asha's contacts in Star Squadron, it was to be the location where Asha was to meet another of her students: this one, she understood, far younger than the others. The newly-christened Jedi Knight wore black clothing underneath a white robe, the hood of which was draped over her nearly-bald head. But she had wandered from her original rendezvous point when she became enamored by a side-of-the-street stall selling a type of freshly made flatbread.

The young Jedi Knight was famished and local foods had always been a weakness of hers whenever she was away on an assignment. As it turned out, the flatbread was worth the deviation of plans. It was still warm and soft, and it practically melted in her mouth when he bit into it. Her comlink still had not buzzed yet, so Ner likely was not ready to meet just this moment, and that was fine. Asha had a few more credits on her and she was determined to try a banta-meat taco made from these wonderful flatbreads.

When she had finished purchasing her portion, she meandered across the street, barely noticing the short flustered boy on the opposite end of the bench she chose to sit on, and began unwrapping her meal. It was a perfect start to an all-too-simple assignment. @Apollyon

 

[Magnus Ornsson]

Magnus had been sitting on the bench scarcely a few minutes before he caught glimpse of a strangely clothed woman who wandered up. She took a seat on the opposite side of the bench from him and began to unwrap the sweetest smelling food Magnus had ever sniffed. The boy tried to stifle his stomach’s hungry gurgle and conceal his envious gaze as he continued to watch the woman eat from the corner of his eye.

Magnus never asked for a morsel not would he speak about the woman’s food. He had been raised in the dire of slums and had long since known the laws of a duracrete jungle, strange strangers often meant danger. Instead, the boy cleared is throat to gain the woman’s attention before turning his head towards her.

“You must be from off world too.” Magnus stated.

Even as the boy spoke he leaned away slightly. He tried to remember the unspoken laws of any cityscape but his curiousity and hunger were getting the better of him quite quickly.

“The name is Magnus, who’re you?” He asked boldly as he attempted to strike up conversation with this perfect stranger.​

@Malon

 

[Asha]

Asha regarded the boy with bewilderment, then amusement, and then understanding. He was feigning kindness and curiosity to hide his hunger. She didn't need the Force to sense that. She had seen his eyes before in the men and women, the children like herself, that had fought to free Ifrane from the Empire during the Revolution; and, since she had bought plenty of food for herself, she determined that it would not be a bad thing to provide this boy with some food and to humor his curious mind with a few answers.

"I," she said, unwrapping a warm flatbread and offering it to him, "am famished, as you look to be as well. Here, share with me. I purchased too much." She then retrieved a flask of water and, after taking a small sip, passed it along to him to do the same. It was somewhat odd, she thought, to break bread with a stranger. But she had seen far too much meanness in the galaxy to give it back. "My name is Asha, and you are correct; I am not from this world. How did you figure that out and where are you from, if not from Bespin, Magnus?"

She was somewhat bewildered that he had deduced her an off-worlder just by looking at her. She had tried to select robes that looked distinctly local, but she supposed her underclothes, which were designed in the vein of her homeworld, might have given her away. She was going to have to get better at blending in if she ever hoped to venture into Imperial territory without arousing suspicion. @Appollyon

 

[Magnus Ornsson]

Magnus allowed himself to scoot closer to the strange woman as she spoke. Something about her put him at ease, he somehow knew that he was safe around her but he didn't know how, but it was just a feeling he had. So, when the woman offered Magnus a flatbread sandwich, the young rascal didn't hesitate to almost snatch it from her hand.

Magnus tore into the morsel as if he hadn't eaten in weeks even though he had, Giza had kept him well fed after all. This didn't stop Magnus from devouring the food as if it might be the last meal he ever had. To Magnus this was how he had always eaten but to most other beings it was a symptom for something all too tragic and common in the galaxy, a child that had once gone hungry.

"Mmm" Magnus stated.

Magnus began to hungrily suck the grease off of each of his fingers before he replied to his new friend's questions. With his appetite temporarily sated, Magnus turned his torso to face Asha and gave her a cocky smile. The answer to her question was simple and not at the same time.

"It's in the eyes." Magnus replied, his voice took on a "matter of fact" tone. "People who are visiting a place take in the sights around them, they pay attention to every little detail around them." He continued to explain. "Plus, your clothes make you stand out too, who even wears a cloak like that unless it's raining?" Magnus joked in a teasing yet semi-serious manner.

After Magnus had finished explaining his initial reasoning he paused to pick at some meat that had gotten caught between his teeth. It took a few seconds but eventually he managed to liberate himself from the annoyance. Then, Magnus took the water from Asha and took a single long drought from the flask before handing it back and wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

"Plus, it was just a feeling I had." He stated offhandedly and with a shrug of his shoulders. "Learned a long time ago to trust those feelings, you know?" He asked half rhetorically.

"But that's besides the point." Magnus stated as he changed the topic back to Asha's final question. "I'm not from around here, I'm from Hutta!" He exclaimed.​

@Malon

 

[Asha]

Once again, the child amused her and she had to let the thoughts in her head become her spoken word. "I can't say I've met anyone whose ever been excited to be from Hutta," she observed. "I was just there not long ago. It's..." She searched the horizon as though it would provide the words she sought, but she decided to take the cautious approach and the simple one as well. "Well, it's an interesting place to be. I'm from a place you've probably not heard of—Ifrane. We're in the Inner Rim." Though, you wouldn't know it if you saw our planet now.

She took another bite of her food and took back her flask of water from the boy, from which she drew a single drink before stuffing it back underneath her robe. The action, unbeknownst to her, flashed a brief view of her lightsaber to the observant eye. Then, she wiped her mouth with a napkin the stall had provided her. She was still thinking on the boy's words. "You're an observant little thing, aren't you?" she asked him. "Robes like this are all the rage on Alderaan, or so I'm told. Though, I guess Alderaan is quite a ways away."

Finally, she glanced down at the boy and gave him a good look. He couldn't have been any older than sixteen. HIs cheeks and nose still had baby fat on them; not to mention he was lanky, which was the case of most teenage human boys until they grew into their muscles. His hair was long, dirty, and ill-maintained; she had seen many like it on Nar Shaddaa not long ago. His clothing also seemed to suggest a slum origin, which seemed to validate his tale.

But that only begged more questions. "So Magnus from Hutta, what is a boy like you doing on Bespin halfway across the Outer Rim from where you're from?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "And without supervision to boot. Your guardians must be worried sick." @Apollyon

 

[Magnus Ornsson]

Magnus grinned sheepishly and let out a nervous half laugh at Asha's point. Magnus certainly wasn't excited to be from Hutta as much as he was excited to be rid of the world. He was finally far away from the cruelty Hutt space had to offer and it was the single most liberating feeling of his life. Magnus rubbed the back of his head and with that same dumbfounded grin plastered to his face, he listened to Asha.

"Ifrane?" Magnus asked rhetorically. "What is it like there?" He asked in genuine curiosity.

As Asha put the water flask back on her belt, something shiny caught Magnus' eye. For the briefest of moments Magnus saw it, the hilt of a laser sword. This was the weapon of a wizard, of a near godlike being that could route entire legions with a wave of it's hand. While Magnus attempted to conceal what he had just seen, the boy couldn't help put gaze at Asha with near childlike wonder.

It was only the woman's comment about her choice of clothes that drew Magnus out of a near dumbstruck stupor. While Magnus agreed that Asha was a long ways away from Alderaan, he did not voice his opinion. He did wonder what kind of people would walk around in white fabric all day, weren't they worried about it getting stained by the rain?

Magnus began to wonder if wearing cloaks at all times was just a wizard-y thing to do. If that was maintaining a low profile, than wizard's probably weren't the best at it. Magnus smirked at his own internal thoughts before he recognized that Asha had been staring at him, inspecting him.

This was something Magnus did in kind, being one of the first times he could actually make out the woman's facial features. She had a darker skin-tone, short almost non-existant hair, and rather fair yet rugged features that perfectly contrasted one another. However, it was her eyes, they told Magnus that she was truly a good person and a kind woman. Somehow, the young boy simply knew that he wasn't being deceived.

"The Hutt Uprisings," Magnus started. "Imperials killed my father and destroyed our home." He continued to explain before he leaned in closer to whisper the next part of his tale. "But when they were attacking him, I found out that I am magic! When I saw them hurting them I felt angry and just wanted to do something to help him. Suddenly, things began to float on their own and flung themselves at the Imperials and they ran away." Magnus leaned back after this with an impressed smirk on his face.

"But my dad left me all this stuff, including this sword." Magnus continued, as he spoke he pulled his Eldhnif from the sheathe on his back. "Before he died, my father told me he found me with this sword and this brand. I was just laying in the mud and he took me home." He explained as he tilted his head to the left to show the brand on the right side of his neck.

The brand itself was clearly a rune in a foreign language. It appeared like an X within a rectangle, the edges of the curled outward and in on themselves. Due to how young Magnus was when he received the brand, it was significantly smaller than it was probably meant to be.

"My friend Nera says that she knows a group of wizards called Jedi, I am supposed to meet with one. I have to learn how to control my magic better, I need to be able to avenge my father..." Magnus concluded, the pain in his voice was still obviously fresh and became more apparent whenever he mentioned his father.

At the end of his tale Magnus dropped and turned his head slightly away from Asha. His father had taught him to never cry in front of people and up until this point he had done a good job at it. However, by talking about all of this, it forced those painful memories to the surface and they demanded to be dealt with. Something that Magnus hadn't been able to do throughout his travels with Nera.

And so, Magnus fought to maintain the dam in his eyes that held back both pain and tears.​