Somewhere I belong

[Brooke Waters]

There was really no rhyme or reason to her world. Token seemed to have made the strangest call in the galaxy, or at least the worst timing. She had moved to the Sith when her family was… killed. When she killed them. It wasn’t her fault, she didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t mean for anything to happen, but it did. And she had found herself in the Sith, and then the war started to find the borders. Really, what was she expecting with the Sith? They were the Sith, though their whole passion thing was not bad.

But the war? She couldn’t be there for that. What was she going to do? She’d get herself hurt. She didn’t want to abandon anyone, but she really wasn’t anyone within the Sith yet. She had only recently arrived, and then things started to go wrong.

That was why she hopped a shuttle to get out of there. She made her way back to familiar space, and made her way home to Corellia. She had money, and her ship was there. She had sold her parent’s ship, but her own personal shuttle, the Riptide was there and she took that before locking up her estate and leaving everything in the care of their Selonian caretaker.

With the ship, and her typical load out, including her personal airspeeder, she turned her ship for Amfar. It was time to get herself where she wanted to be. She had friends on the world, or friends that may have left, she didn’t honestly know, but they were there before. That bit she did know. It wasn’t a long trip, and really, she had everything she needed on the Riptide, so there wasn’t a need to find a high priced hotel. Though, that wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

Making her way down one of the beaches, she smiled with the heat of the sun on her. She had her bikini under her purple dress and left her hat in her ship. Maybe she’d go swimming soon, but for now, it was just nice to walk along the sidewalk, she could still feel the sand and was barefoot, because everyone was here. Besides, walking was good for the soul, or something.

Even if she was aimless and not quite watching where she was going.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

New beginnings. There was always time for new beginnings. It was just a matter of… well, she hadn’t planned to quit. But the reality was that she had to get out of there. The chief engineer…. Sindy shuddered at the thought, and sat up under her beach umbrella, the tablet holding the technical journal she was reading falling to her pale thighs as she lifted her silvery-blue eyes to look out at the sea, which pulled a sigh from her.

I wish Awendra were here. She’d have some quip that would probably cheer me up.

Smiling at the thought of her cousin, Sindy powered down the tablet, and stowed it in her beach bag. She was getting hungry, and the only solution for that was to go and suss out something to eat. Afterward, she might make her way back to the beach house her father’s family owned to be away from the beach that would steadily begin to crowd at the day wore on. The platinum blonde engineer ducked out from under the umbrella, slung the beach bag over her shoulder and leaned in again to unstake the umbrella from the ground, pulling it shut. Finally, she plucked the towel she’d been seated on from the sand, shaking it out and folding it as neatly as she could manage with the umbrella tucked under her arm, stuffing it in her bag when she was done. With one last glance out at the sea, she trudged her way back up the beach to the cross-street, looking at people and places as she went.

But… she couldn’t resist just one last look at the sea as she hit the sidewalk, almost promptly colliding with someone journeying in the opposite direction toward the beach, which caused her to drop her beach umbrella, stunned at the largely unexpected occurrence.

“Aah!” She yelped, her eyes following the umbrella as it fell. Just as quickly her eyes darted back up to the person she had bashed into, looking apologetic. “Sorry, so sorry!”

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

It was going to be interesting to see where life was going to take her. Token did feel kind of bad for getting herself out and away from the Sith. But it was where she needed to go, wasn’t it? She needed to get out of a war zone, or else she’d hurt someone! And that she couldn’t live with. There were only a few names she knew, and really, they were Sith, but they took her in.

Still, people didn’t deserve to be hurt by a fault of her own. That was what made her keep thinking it was smart to move, to be gone from Sith Space while it figured itself out. Maybe that wasn’t where she was meant to be? But then again, maybe it was. She had no idea, but she would figure where she belonged soon, there had to be a place she was safe to learn and be who she was, right?

Because, the blonde could barely keep from tripping into people while she was walking in a public area! This was why Token had left. Imagine her in a war zone? Yeah, that would not end up pretty. She didn’t mean to walk into the other girl, and felt terrible when everything fell.

“Oh my! I’m so sorry!” She squatted down to grab the umbrealla, fixing her dress. Token was already blushing as she grabbed it but afforded a smile to the pale woman in front of her. “Here…” She bit her lip. “Are you okay?”

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy’s cheeks began to flush lightly, clearly a little embarrassed at being so distractible that she ran into someone. Usually, she was so careful and always watched where she was going in public places, but the fact of the matter was that she didn’t spend every single day on the beach, so close to the sea, and considerably less so for the fact that it was on a vacation world. She never took vacations, much less alone.

“Yes… um, I’m fine, thanks.” She replied, accepting the umbrella from the other woman. “And more thanks, still.”

Great, now what? She didn’t know this person, and had been inadvertently forced into social contact with her. It was getting awkward fast. Her eyes darted to the beach, to the sea, then made the circuit back around to this other woman’s face.

“So…” She began, not quite certain what words she was intending to sat next. She smiled with vague nervousness, and a little laugh escaped from the scant space between her upper and lower teeth. “...were you, um… going to hang out on the beach?”

The pale half-echani cringed, her manners coming back to her.

“I mean…” She sighed, and groaned lightly. “...alright, first thing’s first. I’m Sindy.”

She shifted the beach umbrella from her right hand to her left hand, and proffered the right.

“Now… good. That’s good.” She smiled a little more in earnest, then. “ Let's try this again: were you headed to the beach?”

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Token smiled up at her, for being over gracious. It was nice to see that people still did that. She was raised up by her parents who thought themselves better than most, even if they were still working class, and that made her try to have an air of being proper, but humility. Token was an odd duck.

“No, I bumped into you, its fine, really!” She smiled. There wasn’t much that made Token nervous, especially around other people. Really, she was open about everything and thrived on social interaction. She made a look, making sure that the other woman was fine.

“I don’t know. I just recently got planet side, I think its dinner time, well, for me it is.” She shrugged, giggling a little. It had been a bit of a trip, but it was nice to see the war hadn’t hit every world yet. Token ran a hand through her blonde hair, sighing softly with the heat, not an impatient sigh, but a happy sigh.

Smiling, the Corellian girl bit her lip. “Nice to meet you, Sindy! I’m Token, Token Waters.” Why her parents gave her that name as her first name, instead of Brooke, she’d never know. Shaking the pale woman’s hand, there was a vague familiarity about this one,she shrugged. “Food.” Yep, polite, Token, lets try that, huh? “Do you know of any place good? My treat, for running into you?”

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Token seemed really nice, and friendly, and… well, Sindy wanted to keep talking to her, have more of her company. At the mention of ‘dinner time’, it got the platinum blonde thinking about when the last time was that she ate. Her brow creased inward over her nose, and her stomach gave off a low rumble.

“Um…” She began, smiling sheepishly. “...you know, food sounds like a really, really good idea, come to think of it.”

She had mentioned it’d be her treat. Sindy blinked, but thought of a good place to go. She knew of a few places, having been to Amfar more than once before. Some of them were really nice stuff, and others were more down-to-earth and comfortable.

“You don’t really have to. I mean… um…” She waved it off, a nervous laugh tittering out of her. “...I feel like I could eat a whole nerf.”

Her laugh turned from nervous to just plain laughter. After a few moments, Sindy looked at @[member="Token Waters"] again, calming slightly.

“Do you feel like you want anything in particular?”

 

[Brooke Waters]

Token was infinitely friendly, that was where her even considering the Sith was strange. But they did have the idea of using their emotions and their feelings and thoughts, and everything they were do go about getting things done. That was what was important to her, after all. Pretending to not hear @[member="Siyndacha Aerin"] stomach, Token nodded.

“It always does!” Not that her life revolved around food, but Token was a bit hedonistic and enjoyed all the good things in life! That was simple to find, wasn’t it?

“No, its quite alright!” She smiled, trying to not let her eyes wander, hedonist, right. The blonde really needed to focus, she’d only been planet side for less than a day, and this was what she was doing? Made it seem like she was some boy in his first few years at university.

University was fun, after all.

“I’ve not been on Amfar in a few years. Anything good nearby? On the beach?” She wasn’t really looking to put shoes on, after all.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

On the beach…?

Sindy looked around, bringing up in her mind the various establishments she’d visited in prior vacations on this world, thinking them over, discarding back to the filing system in her brain until…

“Yes, yes!” She said, nodding exuberantly, half-turning and pointing a ways down the walk, behind her. “There’s a pretty good nerf burger joint close to the opposite end of the beach. They have really great blue milkshakes, too. All sorts of different flavours!”

She turned herself fully back to Token, her brow furrowing lightly. “I don’t think I want to bring my beach umbrella, which means I’d have to ditch it at the beach house…”

But then her eyebrows lofted in somewhat excited surprise. She grinned, and spoke low, almost conspiratorially.

“...or… or we could eat on the beach. Huh? How does that sound? What do you think?”

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Food! Food was good for everything. Watching the other blonde a little as she was also observing the area, and trying that silly Force technique of seeing where she should just go, by intuition, she wasn’t really coming up with anything. Not much aside from Sindy seemed like a really cute cool person. But there was still the need to have something to eat.

Focusing again, she giggled. Burger joint! That was good beach food. Yep. “That doesn’t sound half bad!” Who was she kidding? It sounded great! Why didn’t she get super excited? Maybe it was that she was still confused on life, was all.

But the umbrella. That was tricky. “Well, we could set up on the beach, and run over, and come back?” So long as the gulls weren’t going to eat their food. But then, Token could maybe use the Force to push the birds away. Right, no using the Force for a while.

She was on the lam. Which meant she needed to get herself some cheap sunglasses, with really dark glass. Or reflective lenses! Those were cool too!

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy nodded, her smile bright.

“Sounds like a plan.” She replied, turning to head in the direction of the burger place, and beckoned Token to follow. “Come on! I’m absolutely dying of hunger, here.”

So she started walking, and pulled her sunglasses over her eyes. It was not only warm here, but bright and Sindy had started to see spots. She was used to spending the majority of her time in dimmer places than this… fairly enclosed spaces. Usually there was something or other that sunlight would blindingly reflect off of in her work area.

“So, what drove you to take a vacation?” She quipped, as they meandered their way down to the burger joint. “I ask because vacations don’t exist without work … or something to make us want them.”

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Token couldn’t help but let out a little giggle. Absolutely starving? At least it didn’t get them into the fight over literally and figuratively. That was never a fun discussion to have. The sun and the heat felt so good, and Token was not complaining about anything.

Plus, the breeze from the sea made it bearable.

Right! She was on vacation. “It’s a long story. Just a lot of family issues and what not.” Like them dying for one. The last person she told that to was a Sith, and then the war happened, and now here she was. Wonderful? Well, it could be worse, she figured. There weren’t guys trying to grope her.

Not yet at least. She shrugged and smiled. “How about you? What do you do?”

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

She could grasp the concept of family issues, alright. Enough to know not to ask. As much as her mind brought up all the questions, inciting her to do so. She could plow a subject into the ground, or draw it out endlessly, once she got going.

“Maybe…” She started, considering if it was even a good idea to bring it up, as she was in a frame of mind that allowed her to consider what she said before she said it. “...well, it will be okay.”

Would it, though? That was a thing she couldn’t guarantee. But it was one of those comfort things, even if Token didn’t appear to look like she needed comfort… from what Sindy could judge. But it was always a bit of a gamble, trying to tell. She was about to say ‘maybe you can tell me about it sometime’, but what if today was all there was, and they never spoke again? Too many unknowns. Tricky grounds to traverse.

“Ah, well…” She said, with a titter, “...I quit my job.”

Her voice on the second part of that phrase was so nonchalant, like she didn’t care that she’d quit. Her eyes widened then, and she went to backpedal a bit.

“Oh, but it’s not a bad thing. I put away a large percentage of what I earned and…”

And what? Family fortune? Go on girl, explain. Like you ever needed to work, anyway. Tell her you’re a spoiled brat.

Sindy snorted delicately, and waved it off. Really, she wanted to strangle that… whatever it was, inside her head. Not that such a thing was possible.

“...I wasn’t getting anywhere with that firm, anyway.”

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

See, that was what she needed, someone she could be herself around and no one would ask her questions. Sure, Token absolutely loved to meet people, and learn about them and learn about herself with them, but some things just didn’t need to be touched. Yet still people did.

“Sooner or later it will be, I hope.” She nodded, chewing on her bottom lip, her brown eyes looking at the other, smiling. Sindy really was a nice person, huh? Besides, it couldn’t be bad forever. Token would find what made her happy again! She couldn’t stay mopey forever, could she?

That was scary.

“Oh? What’d they do to make you do that?” She could see the burger joint and smiled. “What do you do, Sindy?” When she wasn’t looking adorable wandering the luxury worlds.

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

“What did they do? You mean, what didn’t they do? Or, I think, it could be a combination of the two.”

Sindy frowned, not deeply, but just enough that she wasn’t smiling. Her sandaled feet drug once or twice on the path, as she gathered her thoughts so as to answer Token’s two questions.

“Ageism. Sexism. Blatant disrespect.” She began to spout off in clipped, little one-and-two word sentences. “Pranking. But that’s not even the half of it. Oh, no. The harassment, the creepy stalking was definitely the tip of the iceberg.”

And then she really needed to stop thinking about it. Badly. Before talking about it became more than just talking about it. She drew in a long, deep breath, and held it for several moments before exhaling long and slow.

“As for what I do, Token, I’m an engineer. I have my doctorate!” She flicked her gaze at the other blonde, an almost-pleading look on her face. “But please, please, please don’t call me Doctor Aerin. I’m only twenty-one, and it makes me sound old.”

She looked away, towards the burger joint, which was only five metres away, and her lower lip pouted out.

“Besides, I might have to beat you up if you do, and I really don’t want to.”

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Token looked back at Sindy, was she asking too much? The girl was a student in humanitarian arts and anthropology. She liked to ask questions and learn everything, and at sometimes, her naïveté got the best of her and she asked the wrong things. Some people found it endearing, others… not so much.

But it didn’t seem to bother the other one yet. Not quite. She shook her head. That wasn’t fun. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. And stalking, that’s never an easy thing to deal with. Some people… they’re so….” She wasn’t sure ‘off’ cut it. What was the word she was looking for? It was probably better to not say as she didn’t really know the whole story.

An engineer? Token knew a place that Sindy could get a job, but… well, her father wasn’t hiring anymore. Again. “OK, ok, Doctor Aerin, I won’t.” She gave her companion a smile and a little peel of giggles came out of Token. “And you’ve got me by two years. Well, a year and a half, but… that’s Corellian standard.” She smirked.

She was going to have to beat her up? “Even for the one?” Token gave her best pouty look that worked on a lot of individuals, namely her father, and well, the older boys that helped her around campus back when she was still taking classes. Looking up, she saw their destination and figured if all else failed she could hide inside. But they were going to eat on the beach! And that meant take away.

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy shot Token a look when the other girl decided to have a bit of fun with her pleading, then as they were at the burger joint, the platinum blonde hopped down onto the beach, going several feet closer to the waterline and went about setting up the beach umbrella again, bending over in her red, flowery sarong and viridian green bikini top to firmly wedge it into the ground.

“No, I’ll let that one go.” She said, pressing down and twisting the stake of the umbrella into the loose sand. “I just don’t want you being all serious and calling me by it all the time. I like to… try and keep my personal and professional lives separate.”

When the umbrella was nice and sturdy in the ground, she pushed upward on the ring to open it up. That done, she ducked out from under the umbrella, adjusted the beach bag on her left shoulder, and went back up the beach to get some food with Token at… Boondie’s Burger Joint.


"I doubt I could really lay into you all that well, anyway." She admitted, pairing back up with Token. "Now let's get those burgers!"


@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

She couldn’t help but grin as the other girl looked at her. Still, she watched the other go to put her umbrella into the sand. And really, trying to not stare, she could blame it that the water was on the other side of Sindy… or something. Besides, Token wasn’t really an umbrella user, she preferred to wear hats, and she had an array of beach hats. Whatever, it was a thing.

She promised.

Having hats.

“Good!” She smiled. At least she wasn’t going to have to be chased down by Sindy for calling her Doctor. “Nope, maybe. Wait… nope, not all the time.” Only when she wanted to make a joke. Token was very typically polite, especially if she knew something bothered someone else. Not how she worked.

“I dunno, you might be really scrappy!” Token smiled, chewing on her lower lip. Right, there was food! Food! “Definitely! What’s your favorite?” She looked up at the menu, fiddling with her dress. What was she going to get?

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Scrappy? Me?

She thought about that for a moment. Had she been at all prone to conflict? No, not really. Did she like conflict? Definitely not. But she would leave it at that. There was no point beating on the subject. Besides, she didn’t like conflict, and to press the issue would open an avenue to the very thing she generally liked to avoid.

So, they ducked into the burger joint, and stood in the decent-sized yet fast moving line, their eyes drawn upward to the posted menu.

“I usually like to stick to something simple. So… I like the BLT bacon cheeseburger, and I usually have it with fries and…” Her eyes wandered over to the shake menu, where she looked the list over. “...oh, I’ll have a rainbow berry milkshake, today.”

Sindy’s eyes drifted sidelong to Token, who was (she was strangely just noticing) a few inches shorter, though like Sindy, she was blonde, though a different shade, and her skin was noticeably not as pale and completely unfreckled. She was pretty, like Awendra was pretty, and as far as Sindy was concerned, nice-looking people were easier to look at, keep looking at, and look at over and over again… and that helped, if she was going to keep their company.

It wasn’t a snobbish thing; it was a deeply-seated need to see aesthetic appeal in her surroundings. It was likely an irreversible thing, and also terribly misunderstood, which sometimes caused very awkward, very uncomfortable situations. Fortunately, Token was pretty, which was good, and that was that.

“What kind of burger do you like best?” She said, finally.

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Token had a strange feeling on conflict. Sure, she was a student of anthropology, which meant she loved to study conflict. But partake? She would avoid that. Probably why she escaped Sith space with a vengeance. And got back to her roots. Now that she was kind of free, maybe she’d go back to school, or try to find a way to take classes on the HoloNet. Yeah definitely the latter. Going back to school? There was so much adventure to be done!

Smiling at Sindy, she nodded about her choice. Ooh, milkshakes! That’s right! There was that. Sure, Token preferred Smoothies or that ice-desert that was out there at these little joints, but sometimes a good milkshake couldn’t be scoffed at. She bit her lip, eyes up at the menu.

“That does sound good! I think I’m going to go for something like…” Hmm… Token chewed on her lower lip. “Probably the pineapple burger. Yep.” Simple, really. “Fries, obviously… no wait! Onion rings! And a tropical milkshake.” Right, Token, that’s probably not as good as you’re thinking.

She, of course, noticed a bit of the look she was getting from Sindy, but she wasn’t thinking much. Besides, if the other clued into how Token was staring at her, it’d probably not go over well. But Token liked pretty. And, well, it just made sense to hang out with people that were of the same level, obviously.

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

After taking closer stock of Token, physically, the girl from Cularin looked up at the menu again, just to make sure that what she'd said she wanted was in fact the right choice. Sindy wasn't picky when it came to food, and she had quite the voracious appetite at times, due to simply forgetting to eat. No matter how much she loved food, it was not enough to detract from her focus when she was really fixated on something... and she could be that way for hours.

After a few minutes, it was their turn to order. Their food-wishes were given, the order was paid for, to go, and then there was more waiting while the burgers, fries, onion rings, and milkshakes were prepared. To that end, they moved away from the line, waiting nearby as other orders were taken. Then, Sindy tried to think of something else to say. It wasn't that she was uncomfortable with silence, but... Token wasn't a familiar presence, and Sindy decided she would like that to change, but such changes were rarely effected by staying quiet. After a moment or two, it came to her.

"How long are you here for, Token?" She asked, glancing briefly at her, before shifting her pale, silvery-blue eyes back over to the order counter, despite knowing full well that their order number would be called. "Do you have any plans after this?"

There. Those were good questions - just a little better than the idle chit-chat of talking about the weather. She wasn't fantastic with small talk, anyway.

@[member="Token Waters"]