Faction Ready Player Cresh

[Daiya]

"Finally," Daiya uttered to herself as the other two kids emerged from the building. The boy walked ahead, and she noted with a small tug at her lips that SJ seemed as enamored by the ashen-haired girl as she was. Which was not very much at all.

Good, maybe that would teach her about boundaries.

Growing up on Denon might not have been the most spacious experience, but this was not a world to disregard the warnings of others, either. Except in the upper levels, it was expected that anyone on the street was armed. And of those, at least half were happy to use it on someone who was being an annoyance. Daiya's own pest was lucky she had dislodged the datapad from her hands, otherwise she might have discovered the young shadowrunner's means of self-defense.

For that matter, Daiya wondered, just how had her pest managed to wrest away her datapad?

The girl didn't ponder on that long as she stepped in behind SJ and crossed the street. She had her holojournal back, that was the important part. "How do you know about this place?" Daiya asked as they stepped up to the other side of the walkway. There was little need to wait for a signal, not for a local to the city. Though SJ didn't strike Daiya as a local, per se. "Did your parents bring you here before?"

Sor-Jan Xantha Juniper​

 

[Juniper]

Juniper was uncomfortable.

She didn’t have to be force sensitive to feel the distaste for her. She would have turned and left then and there, but a lack of confidence paired with an unfamiliarity to the area kept the young teen toting dutifully along.

Where was Jamie Pyne , anyway? She had slipped the woman not an hour ago, and honestly she had expected her to find by now. Maybe it was all the people around?

Her stomach growled, the promise of a shake being the final thing to drive her forward with the unfriendly pair.

How did you find this place? Did your parents bring you here before?


“No,” came the reserved answer back, her chatty nature dashed. “I just found it.

She wrapped her arms around herself, ingrained manners forcing out a polite follow up. “You?”

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

"I just noticed it when the shuttle was pulling up to event center."

Stepping into the diner, the small Anzat saw a booth that looked like it would fit the three of them comfortably. Making his way down to the table that was flanked on either side by the standard bench seating, the boy slid over toward the window.

The menus were at the end of the table by him, so the boy flipped to flimsiplast fold-outs down onto the table and slid them over for the girls to have a look at.

When the waitress droid hovered by, the boy deferred to either of them to order first.

 

[Daiya]

Daiya looked back to see their ashen-haired shadow. So, the other girl was a fellow street rat? Or at least one whose parents gave her a free hand. It was good to know, even if her question had been meant for SJ anyway.

"Me? You mean to the tournament? I heard some talk about it on the tram and came to check it out," Daiya said, shrugging. She liked to keep an open ear about goings-on, even if they seemed pretty boring to her. "I don't play or anything, but it was a good place to pass the time and practice drawing."

At least until some bratty girl comes to mess up her time.

Daiya might be able to empathize with a rough childhood, but she wasn't keen on dealing with brats. Enough kids on the street were as liable to rough up as much as help up their fellow street rats. Keeping this other girl at arm's length was only a measure of self-preservation.

She was happier when SJ responded, and couldn't help but giggling at his response. It wasn't what she had expected, at least from the way he'd been playing earlier. Of all the holo-games tournaments, in all the worlds, in all the galaxy, and he just happened to walk into this one? If Daiya had ever believed in coincidence, this would have been the moment she would have questioned it.

It wasn't as if she thought the diner booth they slid into was per-ordained or anything, SJ's story just seemed too good to be true.

Daiya felt like she had an intuition for those types. It did not, sadly, translate to menu options. "Do you have a shrimpi cup?"

"Does this look like Mon Cala? The only seafood here is imitation, honey," the waitress droid said, pivoting slightly on its wheeled perch.

The girl sighed, and flipped a page in the menu. Her finger landed on another, if less interesting option, "Alright, just a bantha burger with cheese then."

"What are you having..." Daiya turned to ask the other girl, giving her an opening. "What's your name, anyway?"

Sor-Jan Xantha Juniper​

 

[Juniper]

"Chocolate milkshake," she mumbled, attention snapping up to the unreadable boy who was footing the bill. Was that okay? Why'd he even have her here?

Juniper sunk further into the booth, no doubt pouting a little to boot. She didn't mean to act so childish, it just portrayed her emotions better than she currently could. Translation-- she was feeling small and wanted to vanish.

"One chocolate milkshake, one bantha burg-"

A big one," Juniper interrupted, stopping the protocol droid short.

"...One large chocolate milkshake, one bantha burger with cheese, and-" The attention turned to Jor.

Juniper took that moment to reach out and take a few jelly packets. "I'm Juniper," she finally answered, stacking them before her. She shot the prissy girl a reproachful glance, then look quickly away again.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

"Oh, now I want chocolate and burgers," the tweenage Anzat murmured aloud.

The corners of his mouth twitched as the tow-headed boy's head swayed from side to side, as he seemed to wrestle with the philosophical question of the ages. "I'll have a chocolate milkshake as well. And a bantha burger with cheese," the boy stated finally.

At the proclamation that Sorry's name was, in fact, not sorry, the boy put his hands down flat on the table. "Wait, so sorry is not sorry?" he blurted aloud. A fail-tastic attempt at a joke, but his age worked in his favor here. Or so he hoped.

"Well, I'm shocked. Shocked!" the boy announced.

"...well, not that shocked," he amended after a moment.

 

[Daiya]

Juniper. Learning the other girl's name almost made Daiya forget about the reason they were there in the first place. SJ had offered drinks, and she desperately wanted on. The chocolate milkshake sounded patently childish to her, the girl was looking for something far more —well, far less— appropriate for her age.

The girl cast her gaze from Juniper to SJ, who was now ordering. Her head bobbed a little as she gave a little bounce in her seat, eager for him to finish so she could add on a drink to her order.

Yet of course, the boy defied her confusion on his age, and ordered both a burger and a chocolate milkshake. Was he twelve or twenty? Daiya stared at him open-mouthed, every time she thought she had a clue to this kid, he threw her a curveball.

Daiya giggled at the bad pun that came tumbling out of his mouth, spurred on only a little bit by the miserable effect it might have on Juniper. The girl was mostly past their earlier tussel, but it was still nice to see a little retribution wrought on her antagonist. She was still grinning as she stopped the waitress droid from its retreat, surprising herself by conceding, "I'll have a chocolate milkshake, too."

What was she, twelve again? So much for all the maturity she had worked so hard for over the past couple years.

The waitress droid repeated their order to triple check, and then wheeled away, leaving the trio alone in the booth. Daiya fixed her gaze on SJ. Juniper's aggression she could understand, but this boy was an enigma. She had heard of someone being an old soul, but this was the first person the girl had ever met that would fit the term. "So, what are you, SJ? You're not normal, I already know that, no one rolls into a holo-game tournament or a diner like you. It's almost as if you own the place."

Sor-Jan Xantha Juniper​

 

[Juniper]

Juniper giggled despite herself, both children's comments hit her easily-found funny bone.

"And fries!" She added on, half wild as the droid began to roll away. She leaned forward, watching desperately. Did it catch that?

"So, what are you, SJ? You're not normal, I already know that, no one rolls into a holo-game tournament or a diner like you. It's almost as if you own the place."

"Maybe he does," Juniper commented, looking away from her potential fry conundrum and surveying the boy. "I mean a milkshake and a burger?? That's so many socks to fold. Are your parents rich?" she followed up, sitting straighter in the booth. "Do you own here too?"

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

"No, I don't own the place!"

That was just silly.

"...at least, I don't think I do," the boy amended after a moment, as though now seriously pondering it. Then, he reached a hand into the collar of his shirt and flipped out a pair of event identicards that were on lanyards decorated with different sponsor logos.

The one on top was not the standard visitor pass. It was labeled DEVELOPER.

The tag on the underside was similar, though labeled VIP if either of the girls got a good look at it. Flipping them back inside his shirt, the boy explained, "I'm a beta tester for Corellia Digital. They pay me to play holo-games!"

Seriously, who wouldn't want that job? "It doesn't pay, like, a lot but it'll cover a milkshake and a burger," the boy remarked. Which was not a lie. As the CEO, Sor-Jan had one of the lowest salaries in the industry. Most of his income was in the form of stock options and investments. Not to mention the fact that he owned the investment firm. It made it to where his net worth was mostly intangible, but far more substantial than his liquid assets.

It also completely avoided the question about his parents.

"What about you?" the boy said, looking first at Daiya and then over at Sorry-Not-Sorry.

"What do you do?"

 

[Daiya]

He didn't think he owned the event center? Daiya's eyebrows rose high, staring at the little boy in front of her. Who was this kid?

"Oh, a beta tester, is that all?" Daiya asked, her voice thick with sarcasm. SJ's lanyard identicards showed off labels that seemed to defy his story from earlier. "So, it wasn't just happenstance that brought you here..."

And his parents let him wander around the galaxy testing games? That sounded like a dream.

"Oh, I do the odd jobs here and there. I hear things, and learn things, and sometimes people pay good credits for that." Daiya tried to be casual about her description, the name Darkwire wasn't always in good standing in the minds of strangers. Plus, SJ was being coy and modest about his origins. If that was the game, she could surely play along. "And I'm pretty good with a blaster, too. It comes in handy more often than you'd think."

Daiya pointedly over at Juniper, levying her final words to the other girl. They might be calm now, but she just wanted to be clear where the lines were drawn now. "Ever learn to use one, Juniper?"

Sor-Jan Xantha Juniper​

 

[Juniper]

"W o w," she uttered, half watching SJ talk as he told them about his work. "But you're just a kid!" They were all just kids, which made her willing suspense of disbelief pretty tolerable, no voice of reason there to poke at the holes at his tale. Daiya spoke next, earning less attention from Juniper as she spoke vaguely about her work. Er. ok.

Juniper gathered more jelly packets, stacking them higher and higher in a pattern of color.

Red, orange, purple. Strawberry, orange, grape.

"And I'm pretty good with a blaster, too. It comes in handy more often than you'd think. Ever learn to use one, Juniper?"

Juniper blinked rapidly, her jelly tower toppling down as she met Daiya's gaze. "...Um. No. But I can use a lightsaber!" She lied. "Can you do that?" Of course not, because Daiya was obviously not a jedi and therefor inferior!

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

"But you're just a kid!"

"Well, you're just a teenager," the Anzat quipped back in reply. Then he paused. Wait, what was he?

Trying to relate Anzat stages of growth and development to that of a species with a significantly lesser lifespan was an impossibility for him to wrap his head around sometimes. "Apparently, I'm in their target demographic. Or something," the boy noted, moving on.

Was there a demographic for sixty-year old Jedi Masters who played holo-games? Should he be looking into this?

So Daiya was good with a blaster. The Anzat was starting to get the impression that the girl was unaware that she was Force Sensitive.

Sorry-not-Sorry, on the other hand, had a lightsaber. Someone was training her? That was interesting. But who? He didn't get the impression that she was surrounded by the Dark Side, but she was definitely clouded by her emotions.

Both of them were. But, they were also young. And in that awkward, rebellious stage.

"Wow, both of those sound amazing," the boy uttered cheerfully. "They don't let kids handle those things. Or, its frowned upon anyway."

Just ignore the fact that he'd been handling a lightsaber -- or training saber anyway -- since he'd been about seven or eight years old.

 

[Daiya]

Juniper's response took her aback for a moment. A lightsaber? The girl squinted at her ersatz companion, who had busied herself stacking little containers of jelly in front of her. Weren't those only for Jedi?

"What?" Daiya burst out in a chuckle, the thought amusing her beyond belief. "Like one of those Force Wizards?"

It would explain a lot, though. It would explain the instant antagonism that Juniper had displayed towards her, not to mention the strange way her holojournal was flung from her grasp. Daiya wanted nothing to do with the Force and its magic, it only ever led to terrible things.

Which was why she tried so desperately to change the subject, lest Juniper discover that they weren't so different after all.

"Yeah, and for good reason. But if you want to survive on Denon, you learn to defend yourself really fast," the girl pointed out casually at SJ's comment. It wasn't much of a conscious thought around here, most people knew it was risky but they taught their younglings the blaster basics anyway. Daiya just had more skill, and experience, with it than most. "A small risk of hurting yourself is worth the ability to keep yourself alive."

"At least," she said, eyeing the waitress droid who had just wheeled out of the kitchen bearing a tray of items that looked suspiciously like theirs, "if you're not a Corpo. Rich kids get to live in the safe neighborhoods and play with real toys growing up."

Sor-Jan Xantha Juniper​

 

[Juniper]

"What?" Daiya burst out in a chuckle, the thought amusing her beyond belief. "Like one of those Force Wizards?"

"--No! Like a jedi!" She protested, cutting in. Juniper was not good with keeping things on the down low. The moment passed, dissolving as Daiya pushed past the topic. She didn't have much to add to the topic of rich versus poor, but she was plenty energized by the conversation. She sat perked, listening to them as she eagerly searched for a comment she could add.

This task was forgotten as the food rolled up, the plates placed before each of them. "Oo, my fries!" She exclaimed, delighted the order had been ordered after all.

She shoved a handful into her mouth, yanking her shake over.

"What's a Corpo?" She asked them both, slurping as she went.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Daiya's outburst likely concealed the boy's more nuanced reaction to the statement.

So she was a Jedi. That meant that someone was training her. But who? And where was her Master? Why was the padawan wandering around Denon of all places. And a holo-entertainment complex to boot.

He wished his master would have taken him to one of those. Instead, Sor-Jan spent his apprenticeship either camping or crawling over ancient ruins.

"Jedi, what?" the boy uttered aloud. The food had arrived, with a cheeseburger and a milkshake deposited in front of him. Picking up a french fry, the boy lazily swirled it in the air as he spoke and said, "I thought the Jedi, just, were, like, those people who fought the Sith and did the whole war thing all the time."

 

[Daiya]

A Jedi?

Daiya rolled her eyes at Juniper's proclamation. That was even worse!

SJ seemed to echo her sentiments as to why, causing Daiya to nod along as her food was set in front of her. The chocolate milkshake came last, and once again the girl was reminded how much she had wished for another kind of drink instead.

Still, Daiya thought as she took a sip, letting the rich flavor flood through her mouth. The deep notes of the chocolate resonated with her in a way that calmed whatever nerve Juniper had struck with her confession. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the moment of sweet, sweet chocolate.

"Huh?" the girl asked, looking up from her shake. Juniper had said something, and it took a second for her mind to put it back together.

"You don't know what a Corpo is?" she asked, incredulous. Daiya glanced from Juniper to SJ, hoping the weird boy at least knew what she was talking about. "You know, right SJ? The planet leaders here? The ones who are all about 'makin an offah yeh can't refuse'?"

Her stomach was making one of those now. The hungry teen glanced back down at her burger now, picking at the garnish that came alongside it. She eyed the fries on Juniper's side greedily, idly wishing she had ordered a basket for herself as well. As Daiya picked up her burger, she pointed out the branding on signs around the diner, "I'm surprised you haven't, they throw their name and logo around everywhere."

The girl bit into the burger, and several more bites after that. She was content to let the others chew on her words as she chewed on her food.

Sor-Jan Xantha Juniper​

 

[Juniper]

"I thought the Jedi, just, were, like, those people who fought the Sith and did the whole war thing all the time."

"Well they can help people too," Juniper informed, almost petulant. "Stop bad guys, save families." It was what her Master had done for her. It was the reason her parents found it in them to trust Juniper in Jamie's hands.

"Sounds like your Corpos are bullies. Need me to beat em up for you? I can." She punctuated her words with a fry tossed between her lips, the girl letting out a satisfied huff as the delicious deep fried morsel exploded over her tongue.

"Soooooo much better than ship food. Why can't dehydrators make stuff like this? Honestly, we can replace eyes but we can't have decent things in space. We need to sort out our priorities," she prattled, happily rocking in place as she licked her fingers clean.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

"You don't know what a Corpo is?"

"Corporate Authorities of Denon," the boy said, picking up his cheeseburger. Taking a bite, he still had a semi-mouthful of food as he added, "Corpo."

"Why can't dehydrators make stuff like this?"

Her ship was still using dehydrator modules?

He definitely remembered those. They'd been standard during the Stark Hyperspace War, but even by the time of the Clone Wars, food synthesizers were being theorized as the future replacement of the autochef. He was amazed at how much the future more closely resembled the past.

Just how much had the Gulag Plague and the Four Hundred Years Darkness set back progress?

"The problem is the desiccation of the protein chains," the Anzat commented, alternating between a handful of burger and a mouthful of fries. Pausing to take a sip of chocolate milkshake he errantly added, "Reintroducing moisture isn't going to alter the fact that you're now trying to make a burger out of nerf jerky."

Honestly, beef jerky on a bun with ketchup would probably be more appetizing than what dehydrator modules produced. Since their version was re-hydrated, soggy beef jerky on a bun with ketchup. And maybe some re-hydrated lettuce or re-constituted cheese powder if you were getting fancy with it.

Much nope.

Many no thank you.

"Protein re-sequencing produces something closer in texture, but the cellular composition of the resulting organic chain more closely resembles plant-based meat alternatives than actual meat."

 

[Daiya]

The Corpos were, indeed, bullies. There was no sense in denying that, so Daiya nodded fervently when Juniper suggested it. Maybe the She-Gawker could use those powers of observation for good, after all!

"I would love to see you beat them up, Juniper," Daiya said after swallowing her latest bite. She took a sip of the milkshake again while grinning, and it wasn't just the sweet chocolate making her grin.

Her face lost its expression as SJ started to talk about sciency-whiency stuff. The girl was completely lost as the boy rambled on, her eyes glazing over the more that technobabble flowed forth from from his mouth. When he was done, she blinked a few times before remarking with a simple, "Wow."

Well, that was ambiguous. Daiya didn't want to seem mean, so she started to say more, "You, uhh..." The girl searched for the right way to compliment him. "You sure know a lot about that stuff, SJ."

He seemed to know a lot about a few things, but the young shadowrunner wasn't sure how she could possibly relate to a detailed technical explanation of protein chains. The flummoxed girl took another sip of her chocolate milkshake before something Juniper said earlier came to mind.

"Anyway, yeah, ship food is the worst, isn't it?" Daiya asked enthusiastically. She knew Juniper agreed, the teen just liked reaffirming it again. "Like, being on a ship for days or weeks is bad enough, even when you're technically on the ground anyway. But bad food on top of it? That's just so not a-mazing."

Sor-Jan Xantha Juniper​

 

[Juniper]

Juniper stared at the boy, her mouth full of food.

"Wha," was all he got, the small murmur unheard as Daiya chirped onwards. Juniper blinked once then dipped back into her shake, the straw slurping up air as she reached the end.

"Yeah. So not A-mazing," she echoed, the icey space between the two defrosting over time. She shot the girl a tentative smile, Daiya's enthusiasm mirroring in Juniper's eyes.

"So do you guys, like, know this area well or something?" She plied, her eyes flickering nervously for the time. Jamie Pyne definitely should have found her by now. The woman knew, like, everything, right? For a brief moment she worried she had lost her Master forever, her experience with large cities nil none. She tried to breath through the spike of fear, looking over her shoulder for the door.

"Do you know where the space port is at?"