The
seven-stringed hallikset had seen better days.
In one corner of the bar, a teenage Nautolan sat back with the guitar-like instrument in hand. The open music case near his feat collecting whatever spare credits might get thrown in there. At best, he'd make enough to cover the price of a meal and maybe cover a hostel for the night. If he was lucky, he'd have a credit left over to help cover the cost of moving on to the next planet. Because that's what he did.
He'd crawled out of a sewer on Kessel and hitchhiked up the spaceways back to the Mara Corridor. Only he hadn't gone back to Voss. Instead he was searching.
He wasn't looking for answers.
He was trying to figure out the
questions.
Searching, seeking, all the while the music playing. The notes leapt out from the boy's nimble fingers, strumming the chords with a soft touch that sparked such a clear sound as to resonate even through the noise and bustle of a bar on Nar Shadda. His youth was starkly contrasted by the pain present in the sound he elicited, a weight of memories lacing the sound of a boy soprano as he spoke softly and sang,
"World was on fire, and no one could save me... but you."
Perhaps it was Attahox he was recalling as he said that. The experience of being deafened by explosions as he was carried to safety, as soot, ash, and still burning embers rained down around them.
"Strange what desire will make foolish people do." The head-tails swayed about the youth's shoulders, as the teen rocked his head in time with the rhythm. His fingers a blur as they artfully worked the strings.
"I'd never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you."
As the boy raised his head up, the pitch black eyes of the Nautolan offered a dark reflection of the room before him. As he looked out into the crowd, the boy could see people approaching a woman seated there. From across the room, the boy could read the body language well enough to tell some kind of negotiation was taking place. Not just with one person, but with a couple.
"...and I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody... like you..." the teen sang, as his eyes focused on the blonde woman, who seemed the unassuming queen reigning from a bar stool with an air of quiet authority. Could she be looking for a crew? That would explain the disparate, motley assortment of people drifting to her. The boy wasn't at all adverse to doing his share of hard work. And earning a fair, if meager, wage would be an easier away of getting passage off Nar Shadda than playing the bars.
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He flexed his hands several times.
He'd been playing so often that the callouses on his fingers were starting to bleed. Gathering up a handful of the loose change that had been tossed into the open case, the boy pocketed the credits and tossed the hallikset in. Latching the travel case, the teen slung the cased guitar across his back.
He tossed a tip onto the bar for the bartender as he began making his way through the interior of the pub. As he passed the spot where the woman and her assorted associates had gathered, he dropped his hands into his pockets and paused a moment.
"Hey, uh..." the boy began. He was young. A teenager. Runaway perhaps, except that he didn't seem to be running. Just a free spirit, roaming where ever the solar winds might take him.
"You... you wouldn't be looking for a crew, would you?"
[member="Kalinai Soluza"] | [member="Silas Miu"] | [member="Blacktail"] | [member="Jette Haltzum"] | [member="Acaleus Thorn"] | [member="Viera Valorious"]
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