A faulty saleswoman, (Maja Vern)

[Alexandra Feanor]

"To the Temple." She smiled as she jumped into the landspeeder and motioned for Eve to get into the back as she would be the one that would be driving. "Dont even think about it shortstuff, you got to drive long enough." She smiled and waited for the somewhat disappointed clone to hop back before Alexandra took the wheel and smiled. "Time to head off."

[member="Maja Vern"]

 

[Darth Zilti]

"Whereabouts is the Temple?"

As she waited for an answer, she let her arm flop outside of the speeder. This was the life, being chauffeured around by an obviously rich lady.

"And you're Eve? Hi, I'm Maja. And if you're not the driver, what are you?"

Maja didn't consider her questions blunt and certainly didn't mean to cause offense - she was just curious and, as ever, asked it how she saw it.

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

"An AI capable of things that you could only dream of being able to comprehend miss..." Alex shot a look back at the grinning girl and smiled widely. "Eve..." The girl sighed and frowned. "Fine fine mother, ill be good. Im Eve, an AI created by Alexandra that is able to use a living breathing body as her own and truly be alive where other AI's can only pretend."

[member="Maja Vern"]

 

[Darth Zilti]

Maja nodded as if in comprehension but then added. "No, I don't get it. You're an AI but you're not an AI. So, not a robot." Maja extended fingers in turn and tapped it with the forefinger of her other hand as she crossed things off her 'list.' "And you're not a clone. And not a cyborg. Do you exist entirely within that body or do you have a presence elsewhere?"

All the while she took note of where they were going.

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Maja Vern"]

"Yes and no and yes again. I live in the clone's body at times and when i am not in it i am usually traveling with Alexandra via my core only. With that said, i use this clone's body as a way to truly achieve life thanks to Alexandra." Alexandra's own voice rose after that. "And every moment you do is a moment of success in doing something no one else has."

 

[Darth Zilti]

Maja nodded as if she now understood, although in truth she only thought she understood about 90% of it.

She resisted the urge to ask, 'are we there yet' and looked for another topic to pass the journey time.

"So, Alexandra...what will our first lesson be about." Then she giggled. "And please don't say that we've already had our first lesson, you know what I mean."

Maja, deep down, was just as selfish and stubborn as she was a few hours ago, but a lack of direction was now replaced with hope - and the change was reflected on her face.

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Maja Vern"]

"You just took all the fun of today's actions, i mean come now. That first lesson was an absolute blast wasn't it?" She smiled and looked out over the area as she flew across the tree tops. "Well, Simply we need to get you to connect to the force and teach you the basics of mediation and sensing the force itself. Without those two things you would never be able to learn how to control it."

 

[Darth Zilti]

"So, should I be able to feel the Force now? I mean, can I feel it but I'm just not aware of it."

Maja closed her eyes and in her own clumsy way, tried to feel 'something.' Anything. But without success

Opening her eyes again, she sighed. "OK, I'll wait until we get there." For the remainder of the journey she relaxed. Relaxation was a luxury to her. For her entire life she'd either been chased to do work, was hustling someone or was on the run from the previous category. Simply sitting still was new to her. Until now, she could ill afford it - plus she figured this training could be hard work and she might not get this chance again in a while.

So she closed her eyes and afforded herself the luxury of daydreaming of owning her own speeder, of being able to read people's emotions and being a very, very rich Force user.

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Maja Vern"]

Alexandra smiled as she listened to the woman and shook her head. "Yes and no, you can feel the force but at the moment focusing will bring you no closer to understanding it than you do now. What you feel is a simple... intuition and luck, that is what the force has you feeling at the time. But with proper training you will see a very different way at looking at the world around you, one filled with wonder beyond the normal eye can see."

 

[Darth Zilti]

Maja listened to the advice. It didn't make entire sense, but she figured it wouldn't. At least not until she truly felt the Force.

So she settled for dreaming about a world of wonder. And before long, couldn't help herself as she asked, eyes still closed. "Are we nearly there yet?"

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Maja Vern"]

"Almost, sorry about it being so far out, i dont like to live around others and others dont generally like having a force using neighbor, so i built my home out in the middle of no where."

 

[Darth Zilti]

To pass the time until they arrived (or more accurately to avoid her impatience bubbling over) Maja looked to engage in conversation. Maja had always craved instant gratification and waiting was not, at least for now, part of her make-up.

"Alexandra, what can you tell me about the sort of work you do. Your current assignment for the Sith for example."

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Maja Vern"]

"Most of my work involves droids, mostly due to the nature of the company i run. But there is the fact of When i am with the Sith as you mentioned. My work with the Sith is mostly a side job, i help them with their injured if i can and help train them and allow for them to understand they are no greater than you or me. Of course the last thing doesn't work but i find humor in watching sith deny that face so i do it anyways.

 

[Darth Zilti]

"Droids?" Maja hadn't much time for them. They did jobs for sure but working with them or building them wasn't her thing. Plus, you couldn't con a droid or talk it into doing something it didn't want to do.

"Which makes me think. What do I have to do in return for this training? Should I work for you in some way? I don't have many practical skills."

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

"Who said you had to repay me, just consider this a free chance of a life time, i require not a inch of payment and nor should you think that i need it. Im sure of the two of us, you dont need to owe anyone anything." She smiled and looked forward again before pushing the controls in and sending them plumetting towards the ground, only leveling them out at the last second and her grin growing wider as she flew along a barely wide enough path. "Gods i love flying."

 

[Darth Zilti]

Maja was in two minds. She didn't believe in a free ride - there was always a price to pay (even if it was psychological) - but more often than not, her experience taught her that people who gave things for free ended up asking for a favour somewhere down the line.

But then she'd heard of people that just gave for free. Suckers she used to call them. Easy marks. But now? Calling Alexandra either felt wrong. Maja wasn't a different person to the one who'd met Alexandra a few hours ago - but she wasn't exactly the same either. Something deep down was shifting.

As they lost altitude Maja craned her neck to see where they were heading. The abrupt flying style wasn't disconcerting - it reflected her own piloting skills to be honest.

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Maja Vern"]

"Judging by the fact you aren't screaming or paniced i assume you are use to this some how? Do you know how to fly?" She smiled as she took a hard right, missing a tree by no more than an inch and smiling as she sped through the forest, her twists and turns constant as her reflexes grew to the point that they were so quick they began to merge and flow.

 

[Darth Zilti]

"I don't have my own craft but when I was travelling on the ships there was always a need for an extra pair of hands to move speeders and the like. And some of those racing pods were custom built for athletic types. I was normally the only one small enough to fit in the cockpit. Of course, I didn't get to do this sort of stuff," she waved her hand and pulled it in quickly as they passed by a tree that could easily have severed her arm at the elbow, "but I learned how to control throttles and to maneuvre in tight spaces. Cargo holds aren't blessed with room."

When flying at altitude, Maja just wanted to trip to finish. Now they were in amongst the trees, she enjoyed the ride enough to know she'd be disappointed when it finished. And she wondered if Alexandra would let her take the speeder for a spin one day...

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Maja Vern"]

"Well, if you are so inclined at this already." Alexandra sent the landspeeder to a halt, the suddenness of the stop felt as their bodies would shoot forward and she smiled once they were finished and her smile grew wide as she moved to the back of the speeder. "After you miss Vern, show me what you can do."

 

[Darth Zilti]

It was one thing to wish for something and another entirely to have that wish granted. A small knot formed in Maja's stomach as Alexandra offered her the controls.

Maja started tentatively at first, getting the feel for the speeder. She kept well away from the nearby trees but as she progressed she gained speed and started to inch closer to the obstacles. At no point did she reach Alexandra's pace or tight lines, but she most certainly had fun.

"Woo-hoo," she hollered as she got faster and faster. She handled the speeder competently - enough she hoped to impress her mentor that she could be trusted not to crash and that she knew her own limits. Mentor The word had popped into her head without prompting. It was a nice word - no, a glorious word. A reassuring word, full of hope, promise and comfort.

Inch by inch, the angry, bitter and selfish girl was changing. Life was great - for as long as it lasted.

Finally she acknowledged there was another in the front with her. "I don't actually know where we're going. Do you want to direct or would you rather take the controls?"

[member="Alexandra Cinthra"]