Ask Winter Delights

[Ezra Thorne]

“Arcade?” He asked, perking up a bit. He was surprised at the suggestion, but he couldn’t deny it sounded fun. Ezra didn’t game too often, but he recalled arcades when he was a child. He was happy to be out of the cafe. He didn’t like animals, but they always loved him for whatever reason. It was one of those traits he shared with Emryc.

Master. He couldn’t imagine having a ‘master’ and being bossed around all day long. Yuck. Ezra said nothing about it, walking outside. The snow was falling harder now, and he had one hand in his pocket and the other gripping his caf. He sipped from it as they walked, not glancing over at Lia despite how much she ogled him.

When she abruptly stopped to ask him about hanging with Jedi, Ezra quirked a brow, “I just show up. Jedi gravitate to me,” He said curtly. If she thought for a moment, she would begin to realize the pattern - in almost every scenario he was usually already there and soon surrounded by Jedi. Ezra took a sip from his caf, “Must be my mesmerizing eyes,” He said with a half grin as his gaze flicked to hers briefly.

“I will smoke you in bumper cars,” Ezra declared confidently as they headed into the arcade.

@LadyRen

 

[Liana Mason]

Obviously, she herself loved the idea of spending some fun hours in the Arcade, but wasn't sure whether the son of the wealthiest, most influential person alive in the galaxy would set foot in such establishments! However, as he repeated and continued to follow her, she started her happy bouncing while walking again.

"Have you ever been in an Arcade before? I knooow, gambling is bad, but some of the games are just soo much! I've never shot with a blaster, yet those little stands where you simply use water pistols are always sooo much fun and I'm pretty good at aiming!", she happily continued chatting, more focused on the pleasant conversation than their walk, but she still had an approximate idea of where they had to go.

As he answered her Jedi question, her smile widened once again. However as he quoted the term she had used earlier, her cheeks immediately turned bright red again and she glanced away for a moment, a slightly nervous giggling escaping her. He had a point...it was like wherever he showed up, a Jedi followed soon after. "Oh yeah, this could absolutely be", she replied, hoping to keep her cool, but the grin just betrayed her again. "The Force sometimes works in this mysterious ways! To me, it sounds like your path is meant to cross the Jedi's...waaaaait a second, is there any chance your sensitive to the Force??", she asked him wide-eyed, expectantly glancing up at him.

It was a little miracle that they reached the Arcade without a detour as the bubbly padawan had been quite focused on their conversation. "Smoke me? Excuuuse me, but I'm really good at this! I don't want you to be intimidated, but I do have quite some bumper car practice", she declared, her smile now turning into quite a challenging smirk. "Okay! Seems like we've got our first station. Bumper cars it is, and regardless of how much of a VIP you are, I will nooot go easy on you!", she added, joyfully giggling again. Maybe it was even one of the weakest intimidation attempts ever done, but she really thought she had a fair chance. She remembered the book he had bought and assumed he was interested in pod-racing, but she was curious about how good he was at bumper cars!

The Arcade was only manned by droids and they handed out bracelet that you simply scanned at each station and pay afterwards. Lia grabbed his hand again and pulled him with her to the far back, right were the bumper car area was located. She fastened the bracelet and scanned it before immediately sprinting towards the bright pink car, excitedly glaring at Ezra.

@Sreeya

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra remained entirely silent as she outright asked if he was Force sensitive. It was a topic he was actively avoiding most of the time. He knew he couldn’t keep running from it, but it wasn’t something he was ready to discuss. Especially with someone so damn loud all the time. If he said anything, he half expected her to blast about it on social media. How was she an effective Jedi anyway? A Sith could show up on the battlefield and she’d give away the Jedi position by loudly shouting compliments from across the field.

He was inspecting the sanitary and safety conditions of the arcade when she abruptly grabbed his hand and dragged him along again. Ezra grimaced a bit, “Why are your palms so sweaty?” He asked with a hint of disgust as they arrived. He looked at the bumper cars and promptly wiped it down with disinfectant wipes. He had no desire to sit and grab the wheel of a car that some low commoners had touched.

Ezra was a bit screwed from the start because of his size. He awkwardly fit into the car, his knees up close to his chest because his legs were too long. On top of that, his car must have been old because it was absolutely not responding to anything he was doing. After he gave it some gas, it lurched backwards and spun out of control, driving backwards into another random person. He missed Lia’s car entirely and started off with a spectacular crash.

Even then, Ezra looked quite entertained, using all his might to spin the wheel to get the stupid car to turn.

@LadyRen

 

[Liana Mason]

Cheerful Lia was too excited to notice that he hadn't answered the important question she had posed concerning a possible Force sensitivity, but maybe, the bubbly curious blonde would come back to that. For now, she simply found it amusing that he was constantly surrounded by Jedi or potentially even attracted them like an expensive, shiny magnet.

She slightly missed his comment about the sweaty palms as well and simply pursued of getting into the car as quickly as possible before she buckled herself into the seat. While she had done this before, she had definitely exaggerated when she has talked about her supposed talents with bumper cars , but she really tried not to let anyone notice.

As the droid activated the power for their cars, she pushed the gas peda down completely, however not fully minding how difficult it was to steer this mini cars. Hence, she was sent into a skid that shaked her thoroughly before she managed to push the breaks. She glanced over at Ezra, wide-eyed in surpise for a moment until she broke into uncontrollable laughter.

Seeing the tall teen squeezed into the mini car was absolutely hilarious, and despite him not grasping the concept of the controls completely yet, he seemed to enjoy himself, too. "I'M COMING FOR YOU!", she loudly announced, confidently grabbing the wheel and still slightly uncontrollably zigzagging her way over to him. Instead of managing to fully bump into his car, she only managed to graze the left rear of his vehicle, which, however, hurled her against the cushioning at the side. It was just the two of them playing for now, but a Torgruta kid suddenly came sprinting over, seemingly hyped to join, however as he saw how they maniacally drove, he seemed to reconsider this choice.

@Sreeya

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra was both irritated and having fun at the same time. His car didn’t do a single thing he wanted it to do, and he kept missing Lia each time. He was sent spiraling in circles a few times, feeling that rush of the wind that disheveled his hair. His normally broody and stoic face looked far more lively, and his eyes softened from their usual steel.

He lost control at one point and his car went backwards, finally managing to bump into Lia by complete accident, “Got you!” He called out, hiding the fact that it was entirely unintentional. Ezra had a few more mishaps, but overall the experience put him in a better mood.

He eventually parked the car and took several moments to get out. Ezra’s legs were sore and he stretched. He looked around and spotted a few arcade games, finding one about hunting zombies. He took one side of the controls and jutted his chin for Lia to grab the other side. They had to work together to kill the zombies.

“Ready?” He asked before he swiped his card to start the game.

@LadyRen

 

[Liana Mason]

The bubbly tiny padawan was not managing to stop her giggling while she fought for the control over the little bumper car. The steering was completely buggy or so it seemed, reminding her of the most recent incidents when she lost the signal while playing Swortnite with Maura. Just like her avatar had lagged, the car was seemingly pursuing a life of its own, but despite only hitting a few lucky bumps, she was having the fun of her life.

Whenever she was facing Ezra, her laughter intensified as seeing the tall teen squeezed into the vehicle was just too funny. "Heeeeey" she cried out loudly as she was sent spiraling and against the cushioning again, actually overly happy that he was seemingly getting the hang of this though!

When he pulled over, she attempted to do the same, however the car suddenly went full speed on reverse, so that she was hurled against the cushioning with full force, so that the droid was now switching off the power and allowing her to exit before anything would end up broken. "That was sooo sooo sooo funny!" she happily declared as she beamed at him, her walk quite unsteady now as she had gotten shaken like crazy.

She zigzagged after him, reaching the Arcade game area and eyeing the game he had chosen wide-eyed. Were they even allowed to play that? It looked brutal! But the droid wasn't minding them and so she swallowed her slight nervousity and confidently grabbed the controls.

The game was completely based on cooperation and was about surviving while killing the zombies, so they had to focus. "Okay okay okay...we've got this. Shooting seems to work like in other shooters...oooooh do you game by the way?", she curiosly asked him, however as the first zombies just spawned right in front of them, she jumped and let out a startled, high pitched scream before she managed to regain composure. "Kill the one on the right! Oh kriff, oh kriiiff, we need cover to relooooad", despite her teenie tiny panic, they actually made progress quick and slowly seemed to get the hang of this. Apart from the jump scares that freaked her out, it was great fun! The game was more immersive than she had first expected and so she was soon quite focus, with her tongue slightly sticking out.

@Sreeya

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra winced when Lia screamed right near his ear, but he kept his focus. He had a very serious expression on his face as he worked to kill the zombies, quickly pressing buttons and rapidly moving his character around. He didn’t answer any questions, his brows furrowed together in deep concentration. Ezra was impressed that Lia actually did her part and they managed to kill all the enemies.

After they played a few more rounds, they were finally done. Ezra paused for a moment, looking at the arcade game, “This is…nice,” He said quietly. He couldn’t deny that the break from his daily routine was pleasant. Lia had a shrill and irritating voice, but he didn’t exactly mind her company.

“I game sometimes, but I do a lot of sports,” Ezra explained. There were definitely times when he and some of his rich friends lounged around in the poolhouse to play fighting games. However, he generally preferred outdoor activities like sailing or racing.

“Why are you always so..” He had no way to describe it, so he simply gestured with his hands and moved his head around to illustrate his point about her being hyper, loud and spastic.

@LadyRen

 

[Liana Mason]

Lia couldn't believe that they had been doing such a great job together and accomplish their zombie slayer mission well. She didn't mind the game too much, as it wasn't to gory or anything and she liked how the teamwork had gone so well.

"It is", she softly agreed, giving him a warm smile as she leaned back a little, relaxing as they had won for now. It literally made her happy to see him happy and she could imagine how stressful and busy his life usually must be. "You're still attending school, right? Are you on winter break? And how is school?", Lia had obviously never been to school as her whole life revolved around the Order. They had taught her everything that was necessary and she was grateful for it all.

Lia didn't even notice that her happy gaze still lingered on Ezra as she had lost herself in thoughts a little. She saw it as a true privilege to get to spend time with him and she was obviously enjoying every part of it. "What sports do you like to do?", she curiosly asked, also to distract herself not even sure where he usually lived. "Same though. We always need to be in shape, so we do also train a lot", her smile widened a little while she kept trying to overplay the nervousity he had somehow triggered again. Those eyes were just...mesmerizing and the way she started playing with her hair maybe gave that away.

As he gestured around, asking her what seemed to be a question about her admittedly beaming personality and it immediately drew a chuckle from her. "I guess...I'm just grateful. The light is what drives me. There is so much beauty in the galaxy and we only have a few years to spend our time here, so I like to embrace it!", she explained happily. It wasn't hard to tell that he was raised differently and she saw many similarities between him and his father, or at least what the president publicly displayed. She also noticed how it sometimes seemed to be a liiiittle too much...but now it was her excitement preventing her from toning it down.

"Where did you grow up? Where you mainly at one spot? Or traveled a lot?". There was a lot she didn't know, hence she was curious to find out.

@Sreeya

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra opened his mouth to answer one question, but a series of them followed. He closed his mouth again, eyes glazing over as she kept rambling. At some point, he checked his chrono and zoned out entirely of whatever she was asking. The levels of energy were off the charts, and he wondered if she was on a combination of spice and caffeine. Who was her dealer? He had to get the name.

“Look,” He said, raising his hands to finally make her stop talking, “This has been cool, but I have to go,” Ezra said, “I’ll see you around…somewhere,” He muttered as he spun on his heel and began to walk away. His head hurt from all the questions and talking. Ezra was pretty sure he needed a nap after that much socializing.

@LadyRen

 

[Liana Mason]

Right after she had released another question cascade at him, she noticed a change in his demeanor and it wasn't hard to read. Her wide smile slightly faded as he suddenly turned and motioned to leave and for a few seconds she just stood there, mouth slowly flapping open before a trace of sadness washed over her face.

"Ezra waiiit", she ran after him as soon as she had regained composure, thanks to her tiny steps, she needed twice as many as him and had to hurry in order to catch up before he actually managed to leave. "I'm sorry...again", she gave him an apologetic smile, having realized that she had done it again.

A "Thank you...", followed rather quietly, awkwardly shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "...for spending time with me", it was still an honor that she had been given thr opportunity to spend time with EZRA THORNE and she was genuinely grateful, and also, the afternoon had been fun. She held herself back in terms of not asking whether he was going home now, where he currently resided, what else he was up to today and how long he'd stay on Coruscant and thus heeded his advice.

@Sreeya