This Place Gives Me Flashbacks (Rawnie)

[Doctor Azure]

The blue-skinned doctor hugged Rawnie to his chest again, smiling as she scratched his back. Another story, huh? He absently found himself stroking her back, too, just not with his nails. This actually felt more comfortable than when they'd just been sitting on the couch. He looked at her a little bit questioningly.​

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"You want another story about Chroma, or one about me as a kid? There's plenty."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

This was weird. If she didn't know any better, she'd say this was a lovers embrace. But no.

"How about when you were a kid? I wonder what little Lorane was like."

She could already see him as a little one. Mando children never acted like the children she saw on other worlds in the Galaxy. She'd never played with other kids. Not her brother, or her cousins, or her... 'friends'. Hunting, fighting, racing and competing. That had been her playtime as a child.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

The doctor smiled again as he thought about his childhood, and then thought of a perfect one to tell Rawnie.​

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"Heh, I was a trigger-happy little beast of a kid. The best one was probably the day I finished building my first gun. Must've just turned nine around then. Back then, I was sleeping in a tool shed and stealing my food off of random carts and the parts for my guns and ammo off of whatever scrap piles I could manage."​

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He lightly poked her nose, still gently stroking her back.​

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"Sort of like living in a forest, I guess. Except you have blue people with money and fat jiggling around instead of animals."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

That was nothing at all like living in a forest. Rawnie would know. She lived in a forest, just outside of the village in a small cozy cabin. But there were times when she was onto a particularly rare or huge beast, that she'd camp out in the forest. That was normal. What he described was hell. Kids did not run around without parents in her village. If a child was orphaned or unwanted, someone in the clan would adopt them without a second thought. Family was everything. And even if they werent blood, there was a saying:
Aliit ori'shya tal'din, or Family is more than blood.

Still, she was polite and stayed silent as she listened.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane continued with his story, ignoring the odd look Rawnie seemed to be giving him.​

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"So, I was all excited to go play a game of target practice or something, when this guy twice my height decides that it's a good idea to try and take the gun away. I hit him in the face and started running. Turned out the guy was a cop, so his partner started chasing me. And then they brought in some support."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"Oh good. I bet that turned out well."


She was being sarcastic, of course. Rawnie liked to avoid getting mixed up in illegal activity, just for this reason. Cops could be real jerks on some worlds. She's had to deal with a few getting in the way of her bounties. She knew the law where she was. She never hunted on a world where bounty hunting was illegal. So when they'd try to get her in trouble, she always had to argue the law with goons who, really, should have known it already.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"It did, actually. That was the first time I met the man who later adopted me."​

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Lorane grinned broadly at the memory of the expression on his future adopted father's face.​

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"I kicked him in the soft spot and kept running."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The ending of that story... shocked her. All she could do in response was give a surprised 'oh!'. Made her feel quite stupid, actually. Real fairy tale ending. The credits would have rolled at that point. happy times. The orphan gets adopted and everything is good for the rest of his days.

But that's not how it ended. She knew that because here he was, right here with her. An alcoholic with more problems than Rawnie liked to think about. Somewhere after happily ever after, something had gone wrong. What was it?

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane looked at Rawnie, noticing the expression on her face. It was kind of strange, so he decided that he needed to ask.​

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"Did some part of that bother you? I mean, I didn't exactly have a happy childhood."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"Well, no. I gathered," she replied, still scratching down the collar of his shirt, "But I wonder what happened? I mean, you were adopted. Were they not good people? Did they mistreat you?"

Rawnie hadn't exactly had a dream childhood either, but she always had adults around that cared about her. That was something at least, right?

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor shrugged, looking back into Rawnie's face.​

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"I shouldn't have expected them to have as much time for me as for their actual kids, I guess. Their concern with me was to put me through med school so that I could be some kind of advisor to them. And, then, the old man didn't listen to my advice. Their house collapsed, and a minor civil war happened that nobody cared about. End of story, beginning of alcoholism."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

That was... sad. She kept comparing his experiences to her experiences. It hadn't quite hit her just how different the two societies were. When a child was adopted on Mandalore, they were treated like blood, the same care and love would be shown to them no matter what. This, his explanation just didn't seem... right.

She hugged him tighter as if she could fix it that way. But there really was nothing to fix for him. It was done.

"How about another story?" she said, deciding that the only way to improve the mood was to change the subject, "You had another about Chroma, right? Is this one racy too?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Nah, I don't think I wanna tell it, now. It's about a girl, and I'm a little sick of being hung up on her."​

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Lor sat there, thinking, as he hugged Rawnie. Most people might've described what they were doing as cuddling, and maybe they'd have been right. But it wasn't like the Chiss was going to avoid physical contact for the sake of embarrassment over cuddling with the only close friend he'd had in a long time.​

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"Yeah... no..."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Oh. Awkward. The blonde felt her fingers go rigid. A girl. Well, of course. But this one seemed.... different in the way he spoke. Why did she feel so uncomfortable now?

"Alright." Came her simple answer, "you don't have to tell me if you don't want. How's your head anyway? "

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor decided not to talk about it anymore when he felt Rawnie's fingers stop moving. Something he'd said had bothered her, but he wasn't about to start asking. That'd make it worse, most likely.​

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"My head feels all right. Not dizzy at all. Might be a good idea to take the bandage off so I can wash the blood out of my hair."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Blood. Rawnie grimaced. Right. There was a reason he was a doctor and not her. She was good at causing injuries, not helping to fix them.

"Let me give you a hand then. "

She started to untangle herself from his arms, more reluctantly than she thought she would be. Huh...

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane was a little bit surprised at how little he wanted to actually stop talking to Rawnie. He'd made the conversation awkward, but even then, he still wanted to sit down and talk to her more. He really did need to clean up, though... And then maybe the two of them needed to figure out who was suddenly after them.​

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"I wonder who'd even bother tracking us down for a job that involved a private war."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The blonde moved to help him up, silent. Who indeed? Why had the bothan even asked for her help in the first place? When she found herself in trouble, it was usually with some thug that her mother had robbed. But this was different. This was serious.

"I don't know," she replied, "but when I find out who, I'm going to grill his shebs over and open flame, then feed it to my strill."



[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor began unwrapping the bandage as he stood up, silently contemplating the whole situation. Onderon had nobles aplenty. And like Alderaan, Serenno, Csilla, or any other place with lots of nobles, there came plots of assassination. That was normal. What was not normal was attempting to hire out random mercenaries for one of those. But the reaction to not taking the job was about par for the course. Hmmm...​

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"This is something that happened on Csilla a lot, but... Somebody was extremely stupid. You don't hire out for assassinations on other nobles. The safest way would've been to use a retainer, somebody who's close enough that you can kill them if their life becomes a liability. We're dealing with somebody with a lot of power, but not the sense of strategy I'd expect for this sort of thing. Doesn't narrow it down, much."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

He was right. It really didn't narrow things down. At all. She didn't make a point to know the nobility on the worlds she frequented, in fact, she avoided them all together, but even so, she could already think of a half dozen off the top of her head who would have a motive.

"All I know is, we can't come back here for a while. Not until things cool down some."

The last thing ahe wanted to do was get involved in some war. She'd heard what fighting for rich men did to her father and his brothers. It was never worth it.