Private Financial Planning With A Side Of Fashion

[Tala Vale]

Tala was sitting on a wooden picnic outside a large strip mall, drumming her fingers on the table before she waited for her fellow padawan learner to arrive. She dressed in a sleeveless black tee shirt with the logo of Sithspit across it paired with her favorite pair of shredded green cargo pants and black combat boots. Through her opaque sunglasses, she caved to the temptation to check her mini holopad to see if Loomi had texted her back to say she wasn't coming. Nope, nothing... She was supposed to be here 5 minutes ago. I wonder what is keeping her up. Maybe she ditched me. All the blind woman could do was sigh and look out at the series of skyscrapers and hope that the flower child wasn't in real trouble.

As she wait, the eyeless giant wondered if it was time to return home. Her experience with the Jedi wasn't going well which was part of her and amount of the extreme pressure placed on her. That fire in the village... That had been horrible to be inside those flames and almost choking to death on all that smoke. She still had dreams of screaming children as they burned alive. For now, all she could do is press on and maybe she would feel worthy to be part of the Jedi one day. It was either that or a mass grave somewhere far away from home. All she could do is hope she would make it through her training.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Strip Mall
Tags: Tala Vale

The last mission she had been on was still eating her alive, but Loomi was doing her best to focus on the moment. It was hard to ignore the memories that had come back to her so suddenly, the revelation that she had been under the thumb of terrible people. Still, she knew that she needed to let her mind settle, so the Godoan accepted a trip with Tala. There were a few things she didn't do. For starters, Loomi didn't respond. Plainly, she didn't know how, only having her holopad for a few weeks now with no real technological experience. The last time she had attempted to text out a legible sentence it had been incoherent and broken. Loomi had been too embarrassed to attempt again on account of her poor reading and writing skills. The other thing she didn't do was bring money. That was for a much simpler reason, however, as Loomi didn't have a single credit to her name.

That was fine, right? People just looked at things in malls.

Loomi had, admittedly, never been to a mall before. It was an experience that she had no ideas for on what to expect. Still, the allure of having fun and forgetting the events of a few weeks ago was enough to push her to go. It wasn't long before she found the Miraluka padawan at the table they had agreed to meet at, a warm smile spreading across her face.

"Hey!" Loomi called out, waving her arm eagerly. "I'm not late, am I?"

 

[Tala Vale]

Tala looked up and gave a small smile as she first spied the smaller Godoan and waved back with less raw enthusiasm. The burns to her body may have faded but her good spirits had yet to fully recover. It is why she wanted to take some of her fellow Padawan's cheeriness to boost her own levels. "You're not too late Flowerchild or at least I won't hold it against you." Or at least she wouldn't till it counted.

Head jutting over to a fabric store, Tala only asked "Want to head inside?" She had remembered that Loomi like to make her own clothes from the last training mission or at least that was what she thought she heard in her drugged stupor. She was still embarrassed about her behavior during that training mission but she couldn't change her comments or what her attitude that day was. All she could do is try to salvage her Jedi career and make friends whose opinion of her was still neutral.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Strip Mall
Tags: Tala Vale

"Want to head inside?"

Loomi's eye fixed on the nearby store Tala had gestured to. It looked like fabric. A fuzzy feeling swirled around in her stomach. Excitement? Nervousness? Which of those it was remained uncertain, but she was sure she wanted to go in and look. At least to think about what she could possibly make with such abundance of material.

"Y-yeah," she nodded, smiling awkwardly. "I do."

The Godoan's face became a little red as her natural curiosity rose up from within. She was, as usual, out of her wheelhouse of expertise.

"So... uh... what do people do in malls?"

 

[Tala Vale]

It seemed like they both were antsy about this meeting. As Tala got up from her seat, she replied to the Godoan's question. "Look at stuff through store windows and waste time with friends while getting junk food. We can get food after but since I learned you liked making clothes, I figured I might as well indulge your hobbies." Loomi was also more creative than her in the whole clothing department so maybe she could learn something today.

Opening the door for her fellow learner, she would find a Caamasi couple manning the counter and rolls of fabric hanging off the walls in racks. There were also a couple more in-standing racks in the middle of the room. As the alien couple looked up from the sewing machine they were repairing, Tala waved them off before turning to Loomi and studying her face, wondering what her reaction would be. From what she knew of her so far, it was bound to be expressive.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Strip Mall
Tags: Tala Vale

"Look at stuff through store windows and waste time with friends while getting junk food. We can get food after but since I learned you liked making clothes, I figured I might as well indulge your hobbies."

"Oh," Loomi reacted with a confused frown. That seemed... odd, but she liked the idea of something not needing much thought. "That's very kind of you."

When they finally did step in to the fabric store, Loomi found herself completely overwhelmed. Colors and patterns she had never seen before, all on fabrics of varying size and texture. Rows upon rows of the stuff, more than surely existed in the entire galaxy. At least from her rather small point of view, one clouded by amnesia and inexperience. An excited smile, one of childlike wonder spread across her face.

"Golly..." she muttered. "This is wild."

Without a second thought, the Godoan simply wandered off into the nearest isle, very much absent mindedly.