Rosario Perlyn
Pink Padawan
The blue swirls that had made up the scenery for many hours dissolved as the Unwitting Accomplice reverted to realspace, and a large planet was suddenly there, taking up the better part of the viewport. Rosario had never seen her homeworld from space. She didn't know quite what she had expected it to look like, in fact she had not even pondered the question, but the lavender-and-yellow-tinged orb hanging in space took away her breath and made her heart jump. It sat there in front of her like a gigantic bonbon!
From the distance of almost a decade at this point, the days of her childhood appeared to Rosario unreal like a dream, filled with carefree happiness. She had learnt enough to know that this was an illusion, a trick of the sentient mind, but for the moment, rather than dispel it, she was content to revel in it. An unwitting smile crept onto her face, and she was filled with the giddiness of anticipation. It worried her not in the least that she was arriving at what was now a foreign place, on a ship that was about to run out of fuel, carrying with her no more than the simple and distinctly unfashionable tunic on her body, and not a single credit.
The memory of her mother and siblings had dimmed in recent years, they had begun to feel more and more like the characters of a story rather than real people she had a personal relation to. Rosario idly wondered what had become of them, but the thought soon drifted away. It was unthinkable that they still lived in the same place, and Rosario felt no compulsion or obligation to check even for this remote possibility; and otherwise, there was no way she could possibly find them on a planet inhabited by billions of people.
What had drawn Rosario here, after months of training in the solitude of the Ithorian jungle, was not family ties or a compulsion to explore her own origins. It was sentimentality of a different kind, a longing, directed by childhood memories, for a place with people, where beings were social and took pleasure in one another's company and viewed a new acquaintance as a thing to be cherished. And a place where she knew, or thought she knew, how to behave.
She set a course for Zeltros City, but not for the destination of most tourists who came here. It was the first time she approached a civilised planet all on her own, and the space traffic controller seemed puzzled when she asked for procedures and directions, all the more as she spoke like a local. Eventually she touched down on a landing pad out of the way from the tourist hubs, but in a spot she thought to be not far away from the familiar neighbourhood of the Indigo District.
From the distance of almost a decade at this point, the days of her childhood appeared to Rosario unreal like a dream, filled with carefree happiness. She had learnt enough to know that this was an illusion, a trick of the sentient mind, but for the moment, rather than dispel it, she was content to revel in it. An unwitting smile crept onto her face, and she was filled with the giddiness of anticipation. It worried her not in the least that she was arriving at what was now a foreign place, on a ship that was about to run out of fuel, carrying with her no more than the simple and distinctly unfashionable tunic on her body, and not a single credit.
The memory of her mother and siblings had dimmed in recent years, they had begun to feel more and more like the characters of a story rather than real people she had a personal relation to. Rosario idly wondered what had become of them, but the thought soon drifted away. It was unthinkable that they still lived in the same place, and Rosario felt no compulsion or obligation to check even for this remote possibility; and otherwise, there was no way she could possibly find them on a planet inhabited by billions of people.
What had drawn Rosario here, after months of training in the solitude of the Ithorian jungle, was not family ties or a compulsion to explore her own origins. It was sentimentality of a different kind, a longing, directed by childhood memories, for a place with people, where beings were social and took pleasure in one another's company and viewed a new acquaintance as a thing to be cherished. And a place where she knew, or thought she knew, how to behave.
She set a course for Zeltros City, but not for the destination of most tourists who came here. It was the first time she approached a civilised planet all on her own, and the space traffic controller seemed puzzled when she asked for procedures and directions, all the more as she spoke like a local. Eventually she touched down on a landing pad out of the way from the tourist hubs, but in a spot she thought to be not far away from the familiar neighbourhood of the Indigo District.
[member="Arekk"]