- Joined
- May 15, 2011
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Standing before the bulkhead leading deeper into the station, Ariayla nervously pulled the strap of her bag tighter across her shoulder and glanced one more time back at the beat-up transport that had brought her from Castilon. The young woman had spent her entire life in the island villages of the oceanic world with familiar stars and landmarks and faces to guide her; here in this cold behemoth of metal and stone with passerby of every size and shape looking like nothing she'd ever seen before and light-years from home she could feel the tips of her lekku twitch and curl in fear.
For years she had talked about getting out into the galaxy and chasing the destiny she just knew was waiting there for her, but now that she was here all she wanted was to run back to her mother's boat and her father's workshop and salt-air breezes and speagull cries. It would be so easy to just turn around and go back to all she had known.
And that was why she couldn't.
Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, the young Togruta smacked her fist into the door controls - perhaps a little harder than necessary - and walked through the bulkhead into the unknown.
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At the heart of the station in an unused cargo bay lay the bazaar, a sea of pop-tents and bright stalls that stretched as far as she could see through the haze of cook-fires and station humidifiers working well past their expected capacity. Ariayla moved carefully through the crowd with her gloved hands stiffly held at her side and eyes half closed, a pained grimace marring her face; the flood of emotions from so many beings was like a meteor storm to her senses, smashing against her shields and trying to dig deeper. Fear, hunger, lust, joy, greed, angerragehatedespa...
Her cry of pain was drowned out by the enraged shouting of a Weequay stall-owner as a small hooded figure darted away through the crowd and vanished around the corner, his plight distracting others from Ariayla as she stumbled to the side and pressed her forehead and montrals against the cool durasteel wall. Gasping for breath she struggled to recall the lessons she'd read about meditation on the village holonet transceiver, trying to center herself mentally in the tattered remnants of her shields.
"Kriffing hells, why did I think this was a good idea?"
For years she had talked about getting out into the galaxy and chasing the destiny she just knew was waiting there for her, but now that she was here all she wanted was to run back to her mother's boat and her father's workshop and salt-air breezes and speagull cries. It would be so easy to just turn around and go back to all she had known.
And that was why she couldn't.
Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, the young Togruta smacked her fist into the door controls - perhaps a little harder than necessary - and walked through the bulkhead into the unknown.
‐--------
At the heart of the station in an unused cargo bay lay the bazaar, a sea of pop-tents and bright stalls that stretched as far as she could see through the haze of cook-fires and station humidifiers working well past their expected capacity. Ariayla moved carefully through the crowd with her gloved hands stiffly held at her side and eyes half closed, a pained grimace marring her face; the flood of emotions from so many beings was like a meteor storm to her senses, smashing against her shields and trying to dig deeper. Fear, hunger, lust, joy, greed, angerragehatedespa...
Her cry of pain was drowned out by the enraged shouting of a Weequay stall-owner as a small hooded figure darted away through the crowd and vanished around the corner, his plight distracting others from Ariayla as she stumbled to the side and pressed her forehead and montrals against the cool durasteel wall. Gasping for breath she struggled to recall the lessons she'd read about meditation on the village holonet transceiver, trying to center herself mentally in the tattered remnants of her shields.
"Kriffing hells, why did I think this was a good idea?"