Private Dark Skies

[Ellie Mors]

B A S T I O N

900 ABY​

RAVELIN STREETS​

EVENING​

How do you know who your friends really are?

It was a question she often asked herself, usually after nights of drunken squalor that found her tangled in sheets and limbs come morning, but it was certainly one she was asking herself now that she was walking out of one of the city's many holding facilities. The people that she'd been traveling with, the people who had given her a ride to Bastion from Nar Shaddaa, had been detained over a busted smuggling run that they'd been engaged in and she had gotten off free because the investigators had determined she had been telling the truth when she had claimed to have known nothing about it. There was something about a wide-eyed girl in her twenties bawling her eyes out that just sort of had an effect on people.

Amara, of course, had been lying.

She looked around, eyeing the thinning crowd of people meandering through the streets towards wherever it was that they were heading off towards, and wondered if any of them had been put in a similarly difficult position recently. Not that throwing the people that had effectively been using her in return for her free ride to Bastion had been all that hard on her, rather the notion of having friends had been an ongoing struggle that she'd been simultaneously terrible at while also being existentially afraid of messing up with. It was only right, then, that there were no friends for the young woman to speak of. Whether it was Vex or Dash, and any number of individuals that came after, none of them stuck around with her for long. "You keep the sheets warm." Had been Vex's rationale for keeping her around after the early attraction Amara had had dissipated, which had apparently been the reason he had even expressed interest in having her around in the first place.

Her eyes peered up as she felt droplets on her face, an indication that there was a shower heading towards her at any moment, and she stepped away from the edge of the building and joined the throng of people heading towards the city's center and away from the elements of law and order. In spite of the fight that had broken up her friendship with Dash after he found her with Vex's neighbor, a fine Umbaran woman that had given her a place to stay, she wondered if he was doing better than she was - hustling and making a name for himself in Nar Shaddaa. No matter what they had told her to her face, or what they'd likely said behind her back once she was out of sight, she had been exchanging her attention and whatever else they had asked of her for friendship and companionship, though Uchi - the Umbaran - had been a notable exception that had known about her intent from the get-go. Walking down the street without a place to stay and alone again was exactly what Dash had said he'd hoped for her during their falling out.

She had been lost in thought when she walked straight into someone else.

 

[Carter]

He was on the run, fleeing away from Imperial agents. For what, one may ask? He didn’t know, he had no answer as to why he was running away from persecution. He had no recollection of committing any crimes or something that would subject him before a court of law. What did he do to merit such persecution? Use him as a scapegoat for some political agenda? A lawful citizen now on the run and he had nowhere to go.

No family, no friends. All alone.

He needed to leave Bastion and Imperial Space. One way or another, he’d find some solution before it was too late.

Anxiety made him a noticeable, sore thumb in the crowd. Running against the traffic of pedestrians, shoving people out of his way. Fists clinched together, so sensitive he was ready to bash someone’s head in. Even his clothes singled him out with how dirty they appeared. It only took one citizen to contact the authorities of how suspicious Carter was since all were educated in Imperial fashion to report any suspicious activity.

He turned to look behind him, for a second before running into someone and falling to the ground.

Shit

Time was up and he was ready to fend off his enemy. He wasn’t going to be taken away without a fight.

Ellie Mors ​

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[Ellie Mors]

Melatonin​

In her mind she had been worlds away, days in the past even, when she felt herself suddenly falling towards the ground. For a brief moment her chest felt hollow, air rushing out from between her lips while a dull pain radiated across her front coupled with an ache in her ankles where they'd somehow managed to tangle themselves together at some point during the fall. Spots dotted her vision as it returned to the present day, her weight pressed down with her arms forward - right elbow and forearm resting against the duracrete while her left hand propped her slightly up. "Wha?" She asked groggily, choking back the urge to groan.

The stranger that had ran into her seemed to be an older man that was quite a bit more built than she could have ever dreamed to be. Amara, for her part, rolled to her side to get off of him. Between the two of them he was moving quite a bit more frantically, like he was quite a bit more prepared for what had just happened than she was, and while the stars cleared themselves from her eyes she caught a glimpse of his face with a little more focus than she had before. There was something that looked like panic there, or maybe it was paranoia based on the way he seemed to steel himself for something that certainly wasn't going to be coming from her - a fight.

"H-hey, are you alright?" She asked Carter while she started to get to her feet.

 

[Carter]

His teeth showed with a violent snarl, eyes full of violence when he and the stranger put a distance between themselves. He didn’t strike first, he was waiting to counter whatever move the woman would take. She seemed surprised and confused to run into him and get tangled up. She didn’t attack him or scramble to pull out a blaster to either stun or kill him. Instead she offered him a simple question in regards to his well-being.

She’d get no answer from him, only a stare of confusion and anxiety. He mainly avoided interactions with anyone in fear of being sidetracked and captured for letting his guard down. So much so it was hard to answer back to her.

What to do?

Then he looked around his surroundings and noticed the obvious stares from the pedestrians, suspicious stares with some beginning to reach for their comm device and alert the authorities.

“Oh fuck…”

In any normal occasion, he’d stop and have a quick conversation with the woman; however, he dashed in a sprint, shoving and pushing anyone in his way. Not only would the authorities come after him, but also Amara for questioning and with Bastion being the crown jewel of the Empire, they’d come sooner than expected.

Ellie Mors ​

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