The Amazing Rann!

[Rann Thress]

​

"Gather 'round! Gather 'round."

The Marketplace bustled with hundreds of Iziz citizens crowding the area. In one spot, the area with the least amount of traffic, a young man stood on top of a small box waving his arms around wildly. Around him lay a small metal table on top of which sit multiple small cups and one bucket marked 'Donations!'

"Gather 'round fellow citizens and feast your eyes on the amazing powers of the Amazing Rann!"

Slowly but surely small families stopped by to see what the young man was doing. Smiling, the young man pulled some objects out of his sleeves and held them in front of his small crowd.

"See here, wood toys," he says, handing one to a man with a small child, "no tricks, no strings. Not mechanical or anything right?" he asks the man, who nods back to him and hands it back. Smiling still, Rann raises his hand and lifts the object out of the mans hand slightly,

"No hands, I'm not touching it, yet it moves!" the small wooden toy moves farther up and then slowly moves towards Rann's hands, landing gently.
Intrigued by the small feat, a couple more people step over to Rann's small clearing and stand, awaiting his next trick. Rann waves his hand and directs people towards a small metal table with small cups on top of them.
"You all know this trick, yes?" he asks, getting a few exasperated sighs and nods, a few people actually starting to leave, "well I'm going to do a little twist on it. Does anyone see anything on the table? Anything suspicious? No? Good! That's because there is nothing on the table except for these cups, this bucket, and this ball," he says, reaching into his sleeve and pulling out a ball then placing it on the table.
Once again, he raises his hand and moves the ball under one of the cups. Reaching down, Rann uses his ability to pull a small, almost un noticeable trap door aside under the middle cup, where the ball lay, allowing it to slip through and hug against the underside of the table. With his trick successfully completed, and apparently none the wiser, Rann began moving the cups back and forth with his hands, taking a chance to move the ball back into his sleeve when his hand moved close to the end of the table.

Once he felt he gave his audience enough of a show he asked a few from his audience to guess where the ball was. One man said the left cup; Rann smiled, and lifted the cup revealing nothing. A child said the middle cup; Rann simply said "Nope!" and revealed the empty cup. A woman smiled and said, "well it's in the left cup then," which, again, elicited a sly, but amused shake of the head from Rann who lifted this cup to reveal, once again, that nothing lie beneath the cup. Instead, Rann once again reached into his sleeve and pulled out the same ball, getting some gasps from children and confused looks from parents.

"Care to try again, anyone?" Rann asked, smiling and tossing the ball into the air.


(OOC: introductory RPs are difficult.)

 

[Maerae Irelia]

When Maerae had left Korriban, she hadn't intended to end up anywhere in the Inner Rim. In fact, it was one of the last places she had wanted to visit. But public transport ran on schedules, and the ship she was traveling on had stopped for a half day's rest in Iziz. And Maerae, having never been an idle woman, had decided to stretch her legs with a long walk through Onderon's most prominent city. So, hood down, and black robes carefully concealing her lightsaber, Maerae found herself in the marketplace.

She'd been wandering for a short time, when she heard the calls of a male voice, trying to attract people to his general area. Maerae followed the noise, and soon spotted the crowd that had gathered around him. She pushed her way through to the front, and watched with mild interest as this "Amazing Rann" duped the foolish locals into thinking he was some kind of magician. In truth, however, the man was simply adept with the slight of hand. Or so she had assumed, until the man very obviously began to manipulate various objects with the Force.

Maerae frowned. From his simple looks, Rann didn't seem to be a Jedi, and he certainly wasn't Sith. As foolish an idea as it was, Maerae decided to investigate.

And so, when Rann tossed the small ball into the air, she reached out an open palm. Manipulating the Force was, admittedly, one of Maerae's weaker points, but telekinesis was the most basic of techiniques. As such, the ball sailed through the air, until her fingers were able to firmly clasp around it.

"A Jedi resorting to cheap parlor tricks in the streets? I guess you see something new every day," Maerae taunted the man, looking for some sort of reaction.

[member="Rann Thress"]​

 

[Rann Thress]

Rann's crowd quickly turned towards the mysterious woman and the ball that was now safely and securely inside her hand, and not Rann's. The look on their faces was similar to the look on Rann's, and a look he himself had seen many times, but towards his tricks: Confusion, bewilderment and awe. Rann was at a loss for words while his crowd mumbled amongst themselves, "Jedi? What? He's a Charlatan!"

Quickly, Rann looked at her and, in an attempt to salvage his performance, loudly declared, "I see you all met my assistant! Pay no mind to her comments! As you can see, she is also quite the magician!"

Rann could see, however, that he had lost most of his crowd. Those who had looked like they were going to donate returned the coins to their pockets and moved on. Most shaking their heads slightly as they walked.

Trying not to show his outward panic, Rann motioned towards the crowd, "Do not worry my friends! I am no Jedi! I..I..." He said faltering, "come here miss," he said finally, attempting one last attempt to salvage his performance before losing his crowd, and his reputation, forever.

[member="Maerae Irelia"]

 

[Maerae Irelia]

The crowd quickly went from hushed, to disillusioned. They began to peel off, heading back in the directions from which they came, and Maerae almost felt sorry for taking away such a "magical" performance from them. Almost. She couldn't believe how stupid these people were. Hadn't they heard of the Jedi? There were only hundreds of individual Orders these days, all of which were pretty wide spread. How could they not know that this was the work of the Force?

Maerae barely held in a snort, as Rann desperately tried to keep his act together, by claiming that she was his assistant. If anything, it should have been the other way around. And, if only to piss him off, she decided to demonstrate that.

With an outreached hand, Maerae bound the Force to her will. She eyed the table that Rann stood behind, and lifted it into the air. She twisted it, as it floated above all their heads, and the buckets fell, only to be caught by her awesome display of the Force as well.

"As I'm sure you can all see," with the hand that still held the ball, Maerae gestured to the floating buckets and table, "I am no assistant of his."

And then, feeling exerted from the display, Maerae let everything clatter to the ground, a safe distance away from the crowd. She tossed the ball into one of the buckets, just for good measure.

Maerae turned to Rann, shaking her head, "you have a command of the Force, and yet you use it for some circus act? You could be so much more."

And it was so true. Maerae wasn't quite sure how things worked on the Inner Rim, but had he been born near Korriban, he would have been a full fledged Sith today.

[member="Rann Thress"]​

 

[Rann Thress]

Rann sighed as the rest of his crowd looked at the woman then back at him. Rann heard some choice insults towards his character, along with some snickering and decided his Amazing Rann days were over. He looks towards the woman with a flustered look on his face,

"Oh what, and be a jedi?"

he asked, crossing his arms and giving one last look to his depressingly empty donation bucket.

"Jedi doesn't pay the bills, 'circus act' does. Or did."

[member="Maerae Irelia"]

 

[Maerae Irelia]

Maerae was a little disappointed; the man seemed to default to depression, rather than anger. She had been hoping for more of a rise. Maybe some thinly veiled insults, or if she had been really lucky, he might have actually tried to attack her. But, instead, she got sass and a pouty face. That wouldn't do at all.

"Tell me, do I look like a Jedi to you?" Maerae asked, "I don't know if you've heard, seems your crowd certainly hasn't, but there is more than one path to mastery over the Force."

A small part of Maerae wanted to make another demonstration; to give the man just a small taste of her power, with maybe a good Force Choke. But, she knew that doing something like that, in the middle of a crowded street, was downright foolish. The last thing she needed was the authorities chasing her down. The only thing that would be even more idiotic than that, would be to whip out her lightsaber in public.

She wasn't exactly keen on saying hey lookie, I'm a trained Sith!

[member="Rann Thress"]​

 

[Rann Thress]

Rann eyed the mysterious woman and gave her a quick up and down. She had a point, she didn't exactly scream light-side based on her appearance. Rann, like many in Iziz, did not know too much about the Force. If it were common knowledge, after all, someone would have called him out on his 'magic' ages ago. All Rann knew was he could move some stuff, it was his Father who pondered Rann's connection to the Force, and his idea to turn it into a money-maker.

"No, you don't look like a jedi. Jedi pass through here once or twice every now and again. And I decide not to do my trick. The brown robes and, sometimes, holier-than-thou attitude give them away really easily. With you it's...different. I never met...what ever you are. Had I known, I'd have decided to give it a rest today and not risk having my tricks exposed." Rann said, even more frustrated.

He put his hands behind his head and looked down at the floor, before looking back into her eyes, his arms down to his sides, "Was there any particular reason you decided to ruin my show?"

He could not help but feel slight anger towards the woman. For all he knew, he sabotaged his show for nothing more than for her own amusement. Her motivations for interfering were important to Rann. Whether it WAS just an attempt to ruin Rann's reputation for fun or something more he could not help but be curious. However, Rann knew to not expect much more than that she wanted to expose him.
The comment she made about more than one mastery of the Force, however, did intrigue him greatly. He, of course, knew of the Dark Side, but didn't dare ask anyone about it. He knew what the Jedi stood for, what they could do, but he had no idea what power the dark side had.

Wait a minute, he thought to himself, I'm a simple trickster. I'm not Freedon Nadd.

[member="Maerae Irelia"]

 

[Maerae Irelia]

Maerae let an amused expression cross her face, as Rann eyed her like some sort of puzzle box. She didn't think it was that hard to figure out that she wasn't a Jedi. Rather, from her (admittedly) flippant attitude, it should have been easy to peg her as a Sith. Or, maybe, he was used to entertaining the idea that the Sith were wanton murderers, which was half true.

Ran seemed to get a little frustrated with her, and Maerae rightfully guessed that he was about to ask for her reasons for shutting his show down.

"Your display was pitiful; weak. A Sith Acolyte could accomplish more at half your age. And seeing such raw talent wasted like that irritates me."

There was almost a subtle hiss to her tone, as if she were a Jedi Master berating her wayward Padawan. Though, had she really been with the Order, her words would not have been nearly as confrontational nor scathing.

If things had been different, if Maerae had never fled the Sith Empire, she might have taken this young man as her Apprentice. Though she was just as young as he appeared to be, Maerae had years worth of training she could pass on to someone else. As it was, it was just wasting away in her brain. To be able to teach the ways of the Dark Side to another would have been gratifying.

But things weren't different. And Maerae was an exile, who needed to keep moving, lest she wanted to risk detection. One day, she might pass on her knowledge, but today she had a flight to catch.

[member="Rann Thress"]​

 

[Rann Thress]

Hearing the woman's words had weird affects on Rann. On the one hand, she had insulted him but on the other, she mentioned a talent he had. Rann had only ever thought himself capable of moving a few small objects a couple feet. He had never once entertained the idea he could be capable of more. Even more so, he felt it time to leave Iziz, and Onderon, behind.

As he watched the woman leave, he did feel a strange sense of sadness. No one had quite called him out on his act before, and the way she spoke to him as if he COULD be more filled him with something akin to pride. Deciding it WAS time to leave Onderon, he quickly turned and left the market, abandoning the tables and toys that helped make him "famous" in the Markets. Heading home, he bid farewell to his family, hugging his father tightly before announcing that he was leaving. He was going to catch the first Transport out of Iziz wherever it may go, although he did have his sight set on Kashyyyk.

Although the code of the Jedi seemed to be a bit too restrictive for Rann, he decided that it if he did want to learn more about the Force, Kashyyyk and the Order of the Silver Jedi seemed to be the best start,
Leaving his family and heading to the Spaceport, Rann bid farewell to Onderon for the first, and probably last, time of his life.


[member="Maerae Irelia"]