The Musician and the News-Caster-Thingy

The Vertical City could never truly escape its reputation, its glittery facade on the upper levels just barely managing to hide the vestiges of malformed, malnourished and often maligned substances and quasi-humanoids lurking in the lower levels. Better known as the Smuggler's Moon, if one had money, or was particularly talented in one thing or another, one could make their fortune here.

It is the middle of the day, not an uncommon thing for a moon whose orbital period was nearly three times the length of what most humans would consider to be a day. This part of the city is dressed up to look like Corellia, a tourist attraction of sorts for the various power players that was supposed to bring about a draught of nostalgia to impress or perhaps, more aptly, off-balance those looking to negotiate with the Hutts and their ilk.

Having never been to Corellia, Lily didn't understand the significance, nor did she really care as she draws the string along a violin-like instrument. Her motions are idle, well-practiced, an afterthought as she wanders about the crowd, filling the air with soft, honey-dipped tones that stood in stark contrast to the violent edge the moon held. She seems happy enough, a placid smile on the edges of her lips. It was a wonder she hadn't bumped in to anyone yet in her haphazard wanderings, slipping between humanoid and myriad sentient species alike.

"...And you can ensure that the merchandise will be intact?" asks a portly-looking human of another, much taller man. The taller one pulls out a small case from inside the cloak draped over his shoulders and smiles at the shorter one. The pair of them are standing amid the decorations resembling the world of Corellia, just another two businessmen among many, many others.

"See for yourself," says the tall one in a confident, refined voice as he opens the case. Inside is a simple vase - simple, except for the fact that it is Alderaanian. "Hand crafted. My client only deals in the best. Now if you will confirm payment..."

"Of course, of course!" the portly fellow eagerly responds, and he keys in some figures onto the datapad. The exchange is made. "A pleasure doing business with you!" And with that, the short one leaves.

Ecks, the taller man, with close-cropped black hair and dressed in simple attire, with a cloak for warmth, smiles to himself. Away goes the datapad and he turns to walk off...but for the sound of a certain violin-like instrument. He stops. He blinks. Glancing this way, and that, he searches for the source of the music, thoroughly intrigued, until his dark eyes settle upon Lily.

With obvious curiosity, he walks toward the musician, stopping a short distance away to admire the sound. "I have never heard anything quite like it," he murmurs, probably loud enough to hear.

Ecks' idle address causes Lily's ears to perk, startling the golden-hued humanoid enough that she halts in her tracks. She butterfingers her instrument, its molded flank no longer supported by her chin as her orange-flecked eyes go wide, body instinctively lurching backwards. Realizing her mistake, she yelps, arms flailing forward to pull the instrument out from gravity's unforgiving gasp to be hugged tightly against her breast. Holding it close, she settles her chin on the curved portion next to the stock, its neck rising against her cheek until it eventually apexes near the edge of her hairline.

Dropping to her haunches, recovering with tight, rhythmic breaths, she lifts her gaze warily, her expression flattening until it goes completely deadpan. The taller man receives a quizzical tilt of her head then a very non-standard humanoid blink, nictillating membranes slicking across her eyes leaving them pink for a little under a heartbeat.

"Umm, well, I think there's only one of me so that probably makes sense, Messer!" Lily notes in her higher pitched soprano after a moment's thought. "I've never heard anything quite like you either but maybe you have a twin that I'll meet in the future that will be the same so that I can hear something like it again!" Lily seems to relax a bit, rising to her feet with the instrument still hugged close like a shield. "I'd like a twin. That way I wouldn't have to carry around a mirror. I might have to share clothes though which is sort of weird. I don't have enough credits to buy two of everything."

Ecks almost makes a step forward, as though to catch the instrument, but seeing how his words startled the fascinating creature before him, he steps back. His eyes practically twinkle with undisguised curiosity, and a smile continually tugs at the corner of his lips, as though trying to break past a facade of indifference - and succeeding. He chuckles at the mention of 'twins'.

"My apologies, Miss..." he says with the barest of hesitations. "I would not have interrupted you for the world, on purpose. Please... you must--I mean, I ask your forgiveness--" and a slight, embarrassed chuckle escapes his lips. "I didn't mean to startle you..."

He pauses then, concerned with barraging this poor girl with his questions, and he holds out his hands placatingly. "I have never seen an instrument like that before, or heard so charming a melody..." he glances down at the ground, bashfully, for a moment. "Does it have a name? The song you played?" and he proceeds to hum the tune, what parts of it he heard, with near pitch-perfection while letting his eyes close for a few moments.

Lily seems to wither a bit at the attention, her grip tightening around the bow for the instrument, gloves whining with the strain as if she were about to use it as a makeshift sword. Her left foot slides back a touch, posturing like a deer about to bolt, but for the moment her lips pull in to a weak, toothless grin, the edges of her lips curling up just enough to cause her cheeks to puff out a touch.

"You talk funny like those people on those holo shows, Messer," Lily notes, her hard-worn grin loosening a bit, perhaps finding the man's mannerisms worthy of some measure of trust. The hand movement is a cause for concern though, her eyes widening just a touch, all focus plied against the clean-shaven man, seemingly oblivious of the rest of the crowd.

Lily's ears wiggle a little bit at the mention of her song, her mouth pressing flat until the crease of her lips is just a thin line. Shaking her head vigorously, the trinkets in her hair jingling happily along with the exertion of the motion, Lily dismisses the notion of a name.

"Nope nope," Lily offers fervently. "Songs with names are silly. I think it's important for people to have names so that you can address people that you want to in a crowd." She scrunches up her face, gaze lifting to the sky to seek help, brow furrowing. "Hrm. But if I want to hear the same song again, how will I know? Oh!" Lily lights up. "I can just play it from my mind. Yup." She nods sharply.

"Where I come from," the understandably imposing man (given his height) says in a soft voice, "I did not have much music around - my parents..." he pauses to snort derisively at himself, glancing upward with a rueful smile that shows white teeth. "They thought it was a distraction. Terrible, I know!" He lowers his gaze and 'hmphs' with a half-grin at Lily.

"So now I try to find art wherever I can. I am so very sorry for scaring you - do you record your music? Do you sell it? You must have a wonderful gift of a memory to play the same song again, when you wish to--Oh, listen me to...I'm being very rude. My name is Kracen."

He smiles, while stepping to the side to allow a group of tourists - Sullustans, all of them - to move by while they admire the Corellian art and other attractions. Ecks blinks at them with obvious interest, and then shifts his full attention back to Lily.

"I have had people tell me I sound like an actor before. My mother even named me for one... I think she wanted me to be a holo-star." He chuckles.

"Not like an actor," Lily shakes her head energetically, enough so that she had to blow the hair out of her face with an exasperated huff of air. "Like a news caster thingy." Perhaps she found the man's choice of diction, the formality of the flow of his words a parallel entity to the dry delivery of news on the net?

The notion of sales seems to sour Lily's mood again, her chin wrinkling as her lips tug downward, their yellowish-hue with the purple stained square on the lower lip revealed in the motion from their previously pressed posture. Tugging on the instrument again, the man loses her attention for several heartbeats as her fingers pluck against the strings, a faint hum escaping from her throat, mimicking the tone the vibrations sent spiraling through the air. She lifts her gaze back to the level, expression resetting as if she had forgotten about Ecks and his overarching interest.

"Music is kind distracting, like those squirmy worm things that Hutts like to eat," Lily suggests before stealing a glance over her shoulder. There was a larger casino on this level, its glittering, themed facade a welcoming glow against the rest of the dinge more akin to a fly zapper than welcoming hearth in actuality. "Or those coin machines. Ding ding ding!" The thought appears to brighten Lily's mood, her weight swaying from foot to foot as if dancing to a tune in her head. Sniffing sharply, she cocks her head to the side.

"You smell sort of funny."

At that last comment, Ecks looks puzzled. He tucks his chin in, glancing at himself and even sniffs the air. This may well be the first time someone as referred to his scent at all! He lets out an embarrassed half-chuckle, half-snort and itches the side of his face.

"I... do I? I'm...sorry - I was sure I showered this morning..." He grins, but the notion of having a different scent (for a human) isn't lost on him, and for a moment he looks very, very curious.

Then he grins. "I must have missed a spot!" he exclaims. Then a chime sounds from the datapad tucked under his arm and he pulls it out, frowning. "Oh dear," he says with regret. "I need to go. I never seem to get to rest properly." He puts the datapad away and offers Lily a smile - his eyes studying her for a moment, as though taking a record of every detail. "I sincerely hope you never stop playing, Miss. I will be doing business on Smuggler's Moon for a while - maybe we'll meet again. Your music is lovely."

There is an element of sincerity in his praise of Lily's talents, and he waves a hand before turning aside with some reluctance to pull out his comlink. He begins talking softly into it while moving through the Corellian exhibition.

Wrinkling her nose, Lily doesn't seem to be particularly offended by it, perhaps 'different' would've been a more clear choice of words but the golden-hued humanoid wasn't always considering her diction. She scrunches up her face and wobbles her mouth from side to side arbitrarily before the chime of the datapad causes her to beep as well, the sound coming from her mouth in mimickry rather than from any device on her person.

"Yeck," Lily exclaims, her lips opening up, overly developed teeth revealed in a grimace usually reserved for icky things like hairy bugs and large plates of food. "Um, okiedokies but I have to stop playing sometimes. My arms get all wet noodley and they don't respond very well after a while." She finally unfurls, wobbling her arms as if to demonstrate, one hand holding the bow, the other the skeletal, violin-like instrument. Having aptly described the plight, she nods emphatically before pivoting on the ball of her foot. She doesn't continue playing at the moment but instead skips away, vanishing in to the crowd save for the occasional blip of the crown of her head with each bounding step. logs