Private The Pull to Olega

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Olega

Equipment:
Field Gear | Tic | Cybernetic Arm

He hadn't meant to come to Olega. The navpath wasn't planned, it was just an idle flick of controls and a silence deep enough to drown in. One blink, and hyperspace folded back into realspace. The planet hung below, gray seas breaking against black cliffs, a citadel of old stone crouched above the surf. From orbit it looked like something half-forgotten, stubbornly enduring. Sounded familiar.

Maybe the Force had gotten bored of waiting. He descended the Flickerfox through the clouds and Olega City faded into view. The landing pads clung to the cliffside, metal platforms bolted into ancient stone. When the ramp lowered, Tic clambered out first, photoreceptor flickering.

Ace followed, squinting against the light. The air was warm and clean, the horizon stretching endless over the sea. The sand-colored streets were alive with noise and, even with Ace's connection to the Force rattled, he could sense the faint buzz of the city.

Tic chirped occasionally, scanning everything that hummed or sparked. The sound was oddly grounding. Meanwhile, the sun flashed off his white locs and the matte metal of his prosthetic. His steps matched the rhythm of the city. Each movement sent a faint vibration through the synthetic plating of his arm, an echo of his heartbeat, out of sync but stubbornly present.

He could feel the Force, like sunlight casting through clouds. The current pulled him along... somewhere, Ace didn't know but he wasn't going to fight it. Then he felt it, down the street, a noodle shop sat open to the afternoon air. Weird, of all places, the Force drew him here?

Tic let out a questioning trill. Ace stopped at the threshold, eyes narrowing. Inside, a handful of locals sat over their bowls. The smell of broth, oil, and char filled the air. It was an ordinary place, completely unremarkable, but something beneath it stirred him. There was a presence here, calm and familiar in a way he couldn't name.

He caught his reflection in the window: the scar at his cheek, the white hair, the faint metallic glint of his left hand. Ace didn't know why the Force had brought him here.

Romi Jade​

 

[Romi Jade]

TEMBA'S SOUPWORKS
Olega​

Before he even reached the shop, Romi's hand froze over the ladle; a strong intuition. But she didn't know when...where...how, she only felt the what; it was vague.

Before long the bell over the doorway chimed softly as this new face stepped in, Acier Moonbound . Olega City wasn't huge, and Temba's wasn't overly popular, it was small a establishment, and she'd already gotten familiar with her local frequenters; The shop wasn't crowded either.

She didn't look up right away, she was busy straining broth into a bowl, but the current shifted, and it was noted.

So this must've been what the empyrean had thrown over her like a metaphysical cloak; alerted her senses -- the static just at the edge of your perception. But, It was faint.

"Take a seat wherever," she said absently, setting the steaming bowl in front of another customer. Only when she turned did her eye catch on the blonde locs under the shop's natural light.

Finally she made her way over, "You look like you've been flying for days," she said, wiping her hands on a cloth as she leaned on the counter. "Broth or fried? We're out of nerf strips unless you want the house special."

Her tone was casual, but she found herself lingering a beat too long, reading his posture, or aura she supposed, there was just a hum of something scarred beneath the surface.

The Force didn't whisper names, at least not often, but it didn't always need to. She knew.

-----​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Olega - Temba's Soupworks

Equipment:
Field Gear | Tic | Cybernetic Arm

The bell above the door had barely finished chiming when the scent hit him - broth, spice, the faint char of oil clinging to stone. For a moment it disarmed him; the warmth, the noise, the living ordinariness of it all. Tic perched on his shoulder, head tilting this way and that as if scanning the air for intent.

The cook's voice was calm, grounded, too natural for the kind of awareness that had just brushed through the Force. Ace almost turned back out of habit. But something in the way the Force curved around her made him stop, like stepping into the gravity of a planet and realizing you'd already been caught.

Ace exhaled through his nose and moved to the counter. The stool creaked beneath his weight, his prosthetic hand finding the worn edge of the surface. The joints clicked softly as he flexed his fingers, heat from the kitchen reflecting off the burnished plating.

"Broth's fine." Ace said after a moment, voice roughened by travel.

He glanced toward her then, and that was when he felt it, really felt it, even with his connection to the Force blunted. It wasn't the shallow current of another Force-sensitive, but a resonance buried deep, layered and deliberate. It wasn't loud; it was contained. Every part of it shaped by will and discipline, the weight of countless battles folded into stillness.

It was power that could crush a mind or steady an army, and she carried it like breath. It filled the air in quiet pulses, impossible to ignore once you recognized the rhythm.

"You run this place?" He asked, eyes drifting to the steam rising between them. The question was casual, but the quiet that followed wasn't. The Force between them vibrated in slow rhythm with his own... steady, measured, deliberate.

Tic clicked softly beside him, hopping off of Ace's shoulder and on to the counter. His photoreceptor pulsed in time with the kitchen fan. Ace let out a small breath that felt too loud in the stillness.

Then he studied her for a quiet moment, eyes narrowing slightly as he weighed his options. Did he play it careful, or ask outright?

"...What's someone like you doing running a noodle bar?"

Impulse won out. No edge, no tact, just blunt curiosity. Tic gave a small beep beside him, as if agreeing that the question needed asking.

Romi Jade​