[D0 Evening] Lunch Break

[Runi Vizsla]

There were more things to do around here than just tend bar, especially for someone like Runi. A child of two worlds, she had responsibilities toward both. Both of the current ones involved building things, which brought her to the spaceport's resident junk dealer.

Currently, she was in the back, sorting through trash heaps. You never knew what someone had thrown away. She didn't have a good feeling about it today, though... She'd probably have to come back another time, or head to the old factory.

She sighed and stood, stretching, her long limbs marred a little with oil and grime from the sorting.

[Sharn]

Sharn wasn't there for wares, though he might have (poorly) pretended to be. He was around for the availability and the pricing. It would be a waste to haul something from the orbit that had no real value, or was readily available. He walked around with his usual smug expression, hands in trousers, cataloguing everything he saw for future recollection. He never needed to note anything down. Once anything entered his awareness, it went straight to a nook of his memory and remained there.

He was not really paying attention to the other customers, though he raised his brow when he thought he saw Zygy amid the heaps of parts. Whatever she was doing here, he was not interested, engrossed in his own superior thought processes. However, there was a mismatch, an odd sensation he had never had around the Charm's pilot this someone seemed to exude...

[Runi Vizsla]

It was a feeling a bit like being watched, she had found, but not exactly. Like the pinging of a radar. Force-dar? She wasn't sure what to call it, but she wasn't even fully aware of what she was feeling before she was turning around and looking for the source of the odd sensation. Her eyes fell on the blue-skinned, red-eyed stranger. Her abilities weren't developed enough to tell much about him beyond that something about him drew her attention. Not that she needed to be able to sense emotions when she could see the smug expression on his face. Hoo boy.

Still, she wiped off her hands as best she could for now with a rag and started to head toward the exit, right toward him.

Sharn was able to see the it definitely wasn't who he thought, at least. And, with his Superior intelligence, that she wasn't even a Zeltron. The skin was red with no pink tinge at all, and there was something sharp and predatory in the cast of her features.

[Sharn]

Sharn would not have given any credit to his hunches had they not saved his blue ass many times already. The sensation was similar in some ways as at those times, and different in others. It perplexed him on someone level, though in the end he would resort to computation. It might be that she constituted danger and his feeling was a warning. But there was also a non-zero possibility that the preternatural spike was a mutual quantum-level transmission of the Force. Whether she would test positive for medichlorians he would need her blood culture to discern, as he would need a gene screening to tell what he was. Even if she seemed no Zeltron, an adaptive mutation might have caused it. He watched her approach with unabashed scrutiny that could be mistaken for shameless staring.

"Your attention, to what do I owe it?" He immediately turned the table even if he was the one staring with his red eyes that could take in broader light spectrum than human average.

[Runi Vizsla]

She initially toyed with the idea of flirting with him, and if her circumstances were different, she might have just gone with it. But she curbed her initial urges and simply shrugged, deciding to go with the truth. "Not exactly sure. You pinged my radar. I was leaving anyway, so I decided to take a look as I went."

[Sharn]

"There are two mutually non-exclusive explanations. One, you have enough sense to recognise a superior specimen of the Chiss species and you may have felt anything from awe to curiosity to physical attraction. Two, you are what uneducated minds call Force-sensitive." He gazed at her. "Red skin and blue eyes. Likely not a Zeltron, too many fenotypal features of a predatory carnivore. I am looking at you because you are odd and have rendered me curious."

[Runi Vizsla]

She smirked at the first explanation. "Hmm... A little of column A, a little of column B. I wouldn't say I've run into all that many Chiss in general, say nothing of a "superior" specimen. So I am pretty curious. And I wonder what educated minds would call it?" She admittedly was amused by the complete confidence. "As for species... I'm a human crossbreed with a different species. Mom never talked in detail about it."

[Sharn]

"Many a Chiss have much reason to remain in the Ascendancy as the best-organised and the most stable polity in the galaxy. Still, my horizons have been too wide even for my brethren." He gave her form another look at the mention of being crossbred, his analytical gaze trying to tell apart what constituted deviation from human features, outside the pigmentation. "Educated minds would call it symbiosis with microbial life. Your blood might be saturated with beings which exist across more dimensions than most sentients, and are involved in quantum-level manipulation of energy and matter. Their alignment of electromagnetism, gravity as well as both nuclear forces is understudied, as their existence had long been subjected to religious mumbo-jumbo of the Jedi and the Sith rather than to disciplined scientific inquiry of minds capable enough to brave the subject."

Infrared retinal receptors met the high-albedo blue ones. "With the right equipment I could do some blood tests for you to discern the concentration of their culture, alongside a genetic scan that could shed light on what your mother failed to impart. That would satisfy a part of my curiosity about you." His nose wrinkled after he had thought about the other part. "I have first-hand experience with a Zeltron so I know how their pheromones work. You exude none of note, and would have to rely on social practices and physical contact to reach comparable level of attraction."

[Runi Vizsla]

"We can't all waft sexy chemicals wherever we go. No, Mom was clear that her species is mostly gone, so its definitely not Zeltron," she mused. "Sure, why not. The way for a more detached study of the subject has opened. I'd be interested in seeing what comes out of it. I don't mind contributing."

[Sharn]

"That pleases me." He nodded. "I am Sharn."

[Runi Vizsla]

She stretched out her hand to shake his, giving him a smile. "Runi Vizsla. Pleasure to meet you."

[Sharn]

He hesitated for a very short moment, never truly sold on this greeting custom, but decided to take her hand and squeeze it, for experimental purposes. Physical contact with her tingled, probably because of the Force, and so he awkwardly held onto the grip for a moment, discerning the sensation with a small, thoughtful pout. "The texture of your hand suggests manual labour, Vizsla, I can tell despite the oil residue, and this is a scrapyard. My assertion is that you tinker for a part of your living. What is it usually?" In Sharn's case, his goo gun would point to craft-level engineering.

[Runi Vizsla]

"Accurate," she agreed. "I like creating machinery, armor, and weapons. I'm also a bartender, and I'm pretty good as whacking things with a big vibroax. Though I'm working on upgrading... Need to find a crystal, though."

[Sharn]

"I assume kyber, not some random lecuosphenite or a diamond-grain bit for your hammer drill." He mused. "So, willing to dabble into religious fetishes after all?" He took his hand away. "There was a time a lot of them passed through my hands."

[Runi Vizsla]

"Well, I wouldn't say no to either of those, either, but yes, kyber," she said, resting her hands on her him with an amused expression. His statement made her raise an eyebrow. "That so? Well... I guess it could be seen as religious. As much a family tradition as anything, though. Plus a well-made one is damn effective."

[Sharn]

"I know how to build more effective things with them than a portable laser stick." He cringed a little. "Following tradition invites mistakes of the past. The most egregious of them - to use before understanding, or without it." He looked where her hands went. "Still, we might be after the same thing. I need kybers for my research, precisely for their hyper-energy properties. At least until I learn how to synthesize them on an industrial scale."

[Runi Vizsla]

An eyebrow rose and she cocked her hip to the side. "Traditions aren't good to indulge in uncritically, no. But it's not like my people haven't learned that. I have enough of a brain in my head to know that much, so kindly don't make assumptions. They lead to as many mistakes as tradition."

"Anyway, maybe we can find some around Noventa. You never know."

[Sharn]

"I make claims for keen minds to challenge them in a methodical way. This is how science works." He refused to absorb her point. "Traditions can be a resource." He shrugged. "Natural formations are unlikely, the planet shares little with Jedha, Ilum or Krayt, but it cannot be ruled out. More likely, former Force-dabblers have scattered some around. And..." He pointed a finger at her. "You don't know only until you come to know. Should it be my understanding that you would be grateful for my assistance in your kyber hunt?""

[Runi Vizsla]

"That was more my point, yes. Finding one of those that someone brought here," she said, nodding. "I think we could help one another, if you have an interest."

[Sharn]

"I might, if it does not collide with more pressing matters." He paused. "But we'll meet for some tests anyway. I operate out of a freighter, Strange Charm." He told her the hangar number. "You mentioned a bar."