Landslide [Alric Kuhn]

[Lief]

It hadn't been too long since she had left Ijaat's care; now in tip-top condition, with a clean bill of health, Jyn was at a loss of what to do. All of her possessions had been lost to whatever it was she was failing to remember, her ship, her notes, even the little hold-out Siobhan had once given her. She had nothing save the clothes on her body and a few credits. It was times like these that she truly missed her old companion, Fuz would've known where her things were, where to go from here.

Having returned back to the self same space station she had been found upon she decided to try and retrace her steps. A difficult task considering all she could remember was waking up at the foot of a customs officer and then stumbling down into a hangar bay. Still, it was something. Maybe she could find her ship onboard?

So there she stood, in the place she had come to broken and bleeding, with no recollection. But now where. The station was awash with people, but none of them even remotely resembled the officer. Instead of lingering she decided to wander around instead, maybe something would trigger a memory, after all she could not recall having ever been here before. Feeling hungry she opted to buy a few ration-like supplies to keep with her, as well as a new pack to carry them in. After all, what was this particular Sol without her satchel?

[member='Alric Kuhn']

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Jyn Sol"]

He knew this station.

A long time ago he had come here and met a young man to discuss the purchasing of his company. It seemed odd the would stop here, especially considering just how he had come here. A small smile played on his face as he watched the crowd filter by, his hands wringing the metal bar in front of him that was meant to keep pedestrians from falling off the upper walkway.

There was something here, something that he couldn't quite put into words.

Most would simply have said it was another space station, but Alric didn't see it that way. It was a small station to be sure, tiny really, but the mix of people that filtered through here were of all sorts. Rodians, Duros, Humans, even a Hutt or two seemed to slime their way across the floor of the station. It was an odd assortment of beings, but one that was a joy to watch.

"Diversity breeds economy." Alric mused to himself as he leaned over the edge of the railway, watching figures streaming on by as his ship was refueled.

 

[Lief]

With her pack well and truly full, including a flask full of fresh water, Jyn proceeded to wander through the swarms of people who had chosen this station as their pit stop. For such a small location it was crammed with people from all walks of life, perhaps there were others in the same situation as she was. Her hand fell down to her side as anxiety rose, she hated crowds; her fingers brushed against the cool surface of a blaster which Ijaat had insisted she take. It was honestly the only weapon Jyn really knew how to use, not counting her apparent natural proficiency with throwing knives. But that was impractical!

Hiding the blaster beneath her shirt once again, Jyn shouldered the pack and wandered to the centre of the station. Her gaze drifted over the myriad of individuals. None of their faces were familiar, none of the stalls which had set up along the broadwalk or the officers who eyed every other person with suspicion. By now Jyn knew a few secrets about herself that proved startling. For one she was four years older than she last recalled being. Four years of nothingness in her mind, anything could've happened! And then her heritage, what she believed to be true, was entirely false. She wasn't even human.

Was she the same girl she had been before she woke up here? That was hard to say.

Everyone here on the station was so lost in their own lives that the one individual who had also stopped to observe stood out to her. He was stood against one of the guard rails across from her, and from her vantage, albeit slightly lower than his, she was able to scrutinize his appearance; her mind made up all kinds of reasons for his being there, but it was just as likely he was simply catching his breath before heading down to make a connection on some shuttle. Still, aside from the patrons who were stood haggling with merchants, he was the only other being who was still in the centre of all this chaos.

That was a comforting thought.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Jyn Sol"]

For a moment more he lingered, then his eyes fell on someone who stood still among the crowd.

It was a young woman, a girl really, that seemed to stop and stare up at him. Alric's head cocked to the side, his eyes settling on her, his lips thinning slightly. She didn't look familiar, she didn't even look like anyone that could be familiar. It was odd how that happened so often. Alric had met thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. He'd seen most of what the galaxy had to offer, and yet he still saw new faces each and every day.

For an old man like him, that was a small joy.

His thin lips turned into a smile, his expression softening.

There was an odd hint of kindness to his look, and expression that told of weariness. For some odd reason the look on the womans face reminded him very much of the look Rose, his daughter, had often given him as a child. Perhaps that was nostalgia rearing its head, though he didn't notice if it was. He pondered for a moment more, then slowly turned around and headed towards the stairs.

 

[Lief]

Jyn was not aware she had been staring until the gaze of the man flicked down to meet her own. Immediately the young woman pulled back into the lingering shadows, yet she kept him within her sights all the same. Who could say why, the color which rose in her cheeks ought to have been enough to chide her into leaving well enough alone. Thoroughly embarrassed, she gave herself a moment for composure and then stepped forward once again. After all, her vantage in this section of the station was rather splendid.

The man was wearing a smile now, though she wasn't sure if that ought to make her feel any better. He appeared as worn-down as she did, though he hid it far better than she ever could. Then again there was a lot provoking her mind, unanswered questions that she had barely wrapped her head around. Besides, Jyn had never been especially great at hiding her thoughts, Tirdarius had always done his best to remind her to try a little harder when in company. The only time she'd ever really managed it was back on Atrisia, but then the Inquisitors had spooked her so much that it was probably written all over her expression.

Just as quickly as this minor exchange had happened, however, the man turned to leave. Something about him compelled her to find out more, so she tracked his movements with her eyes and carefully maneuvered her way through the crowds she loathed so much. Jyn had never done a thing like this before, following after someone she did not even know for reasons she could not comprehend or explain. Usually it was she who was the hunted. Not that this was anything like that!

So she kept back, distance being the key factor here lest she be noticed in her actions. If only Fuz were here, the little monkey and she had made the best of teams. But Fuz was gone, so Jyn had to rely on just herself, the way Krius had intended.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Jyn Sol"]

The stairs were nearby, only a few steps to the left really, close enough that it didn't take him more than a few minutes to descend down towards the main level.

Curiosity had been peeked, a small bit mind you, but it was still there.

His father had told him that when a man got old there were few things that he still wanted to do, few things that he was good at. Talking was perhaps the greatest of those things. Embarrassingly enough, the words of his father held true now more than ever. It seemed that as of late Alric Kuhn always wanted to talk, and more so to strangers than anyone else.

It was an odd compulsion, but it was what drove him now.

Strangely he wanted to speak to the girl, to ask her why she was here, why she was alone, and what she was trying to accomplish on a station like this. There was an interest there, perhaps even a hint of concern, she did remind him of his daughters after all.

 

[Lief]

All at once he was gone from her view. How odd, she couldn't find him anywhere in the upper palisades from her vantage point. Her wandering slowed a little, as she had no clue where she was going anymore, it was one thing to be following someone to a destination and another to know where that destination actually was.

And as she glanced around herself she realised that she'd foolishly left behind one of the few possessions she had in the world. Begrudgingly she backtracked through the crowd to where she had been standing and was lucky enough to find her pack leaning against the guard rail. So this wasn't the kind of Station filled with lowlives who would leap on an untended item? That was comforting to know. But if someone here hadn't taken her other things then who?

Then again, four years was a long time. She could have misplaced everything at any point within that timeframe.

When she turned back around her eyes immediately fell upon a figure in the distance, moving down toward her through the crowd. It was the self same man she had been trying to track through the station. Did he realise what she had been doing? Oh dear she was in for it now. Instinct bade her to reach for the blaster Ijaat had kindly provided her with, yet for whatever reason she did not draw it. She just kept her hand hovering over it.

Unsure of whether or not he was intentionally heading her way, Jyn began to slowly step forward in an attempt to seem... Preoccupied? She didn't want to look as though she was watching him after all. Damnit, she always managed to find herself in some sort of trouble.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Jyn Sol"]

The crowd was thick, almost insurmountable.

It seemed that as he had made his way up the stairs the rest of the space station had gathered in the small courtyard in order to bar his way. It was an annoyance, one that he could do without.

Oddly, the girl seemed to have disappeared from his sight, her slender form hiding between the mass of the crowd. The Tetan began to search through it, eyes folding over Aliens and humans alike. There was a lull in the shift of the crowd, a small moment where everything seemed to stall. It was in that moment that he saw her, just a small glimpse of her eyes staring at him.

He smiled, then began to push through the crowd.

Alric's intentions could not have been more innocent if he tried, all he wanted to do was talk to her.

 

[Lief]

She couldn't hide. He was right there, and from the look of him he had been actively seeking her out to. But there was no hostility or accusation emanating from the man, in fact he was one of the more serene individuals on the space station. And that was a dream come true for an empath who often experienced the emotions of another tenfold. It actually bade her to relax, and her stress levels lessened.

Realising that there was no use in putting it off any further, Jyn took a step forward to meet him and awkwardly shoved some of the hair from her eyes to give her nervous hands something to do other than tremor.

"Hello, Sir," she said, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot, "I didn't mean to stare, I can explain..." she began, before realising that she really couldn't. She had no excuse, and saying that she had noticed him in the crowd for being one of the few people not lost inside their busy lives was not likely to explain very much. So instead she fell silent and hoped that there was some other reason for his approach.

Even now she could sense the lack of hostility, however. What a relief, because Jyn wasn't even sure she could use the blaster Ijaat had given her. After all, there was a large chunk of her memory missing, who knew what had happened in the those lost years.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Jyn Sol"]

He put up his hand, stopping any explanation.

There was an odd innocents to her. She was about the same age as Lily and Rose, he could see that now that they were close. Perhaps a year younger or older, but not much more than that. He smiled at her, it was a warm, almost fatherly smile. He had no idea what her name was, who she was really, and he had no idea if she had recognized him. Yet there was a familiarity in the air, something that Alric could not quite explain. The two of them had picked each other out of a crowd of strangers, perhaps there was a reason for that.

"It's alright." He said calmly, his voice a deep thrum. "People often stare nowadays."

It was true.

He was Alric Kuhn, the man that had supposedly been assassinated by the One Sith. The man that had returned from the dead without his wife. He was often stared at now, and unnervingly he had even been questioned about where Silara was. It was always hard to explain that question, so most of the time he ignored it.

 

[Lief]

[Sorry just getting back into Jyn! Don't hate me!]

Well, Jyn did not know who Alric was by sight or name - word may have traveled between the Factions of the Galaxy, the higher ups, but she was at this point a nobody. She didn't really care what happened in the big Galactic game, her survival was more important. Sure, a tunneled vision wasn't great, but she was alone out here and if she didn't take care of number one, who would?

"I don't know why they'd have reason to stare" she muttered, in her ignorance. The calmness of his presence removed all of her former concerns, it seemed not everyone in the Galaxy was a crazy Force-and-Saber wielding megalomaniac... Even if they were the kind of people she seemed to attract.

While she did not know of him, she couldn't help but feel an eerie attraction all the same, there was something different about him that she couldn't quite place her finger on.

He seemed like a man of importance at any rate, which boded the question of why he had taken even a second out of his day to entertain someone such as herself. "You haven't seen a freighter around have you?" she blurted out, in the silence which followed. Truly she was concerned for the whereabouts of her ship and the funny little droid who had kept her company onboard. What a stupid question, though... This was a space station, there would be plenty of freighters around!

[member="Alric Kuhn"]