Populate PRIMAVERA | ME Populate of Aurion

[Kivah]

Tags: Charlana
Gear: Goggles, Jacket, Autoblaster

Kivah could practically feel Charlana's recognition of who she was hinting at, and felt pleased with herself at guessing correctly. Seemed they were both in the same business after all. Or at least as much as someone like them could be. "Yeah, that was my deal too. Didn't want to be tied down or pushed from place to place at someone else's agenda."

The other woman was a match for Kivah's style and seemed willing, maybe Kivah could let her guard down a little, Charlna seemed to have forgiven (or at least understood) her outburst on meeting. And she was feeling good as the buzz of alcohol softened the edges. Swirling the remainder of her drink around in the bottom of the bottle, Kivah placed a cupped a hand against Charlana's back as they danced together. "I've got some stuff back at mine that'll wash out the taste of this chit. That is, if you still like the idea of having someone reliable behind you as you move." If not, no sweat, but she was feeling done at this party. Mandos really weren't her scene.

 

[Alsin Vex]

Alsin sighed a little. Not sure how to answer that. She looked down, taking a breath before she spoke up.

“Well… I guess if you need a place to start there is an entire party going on.” She knew someone at this point was probably going to be wondering where she ran off to anyway. “Just take some time to not think about it for a moment?” She sighed a little. “Doesn’t always work, but it can.”

Perseus

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Sundari Speedway
Tags: Aselia Verd | Avast Verd | Juniper Le Fey | Siv Kryze



She had played it too safe.

Braking had taken her on a line higher along the turn than she’d meant. Another racer, Siv judging by the armor, slipped below her, cutting a tighter turn and pulled ahead. Aselia’s presence drew closer as the red-and-black BARC came alongside her. A third racer pulled up on her other side as they exited the turn.

Feth.

She knew the stretch ahead, knew the sharp bursts of wind that cut across the basin out here. Driving three-wide along this particular straight added higher risk. Adelle reached out with the Force as her speeder dipped down into the basin, expanding her awareness to the environment, the shifting winds and the motion of the racers beside her.

Then she opened the throttle.

 

[Perseus]

I let her words settle for a while before answering. The suggestion should have sounded ridiculous to me. A party. Music. People. Celebration. Under normal circumstances I probably would have dismissed it immediately and moved on without another thought. Instead I found myself considering it longer than I expected, not because I wanted to go, but because some part of me was tired enough to wonder whether she might be right.

The realization unsettled me.

My gaze drifted somewhere past her while I tried to sort through everything that had been said. The questions hadn't gone away. If anything there seemed to be more of them now than before we started talking. They crowded together awkwardly, each one pulling against the next until it became difficult to focus on any single thought for very long. Usually I knew what came next. There was always another objective, another task, another reason to keep moving. The path forward wasn't always easy, but it existed. I understood movement. I understood purpose. I understood surviving long enough to reach whatever came after.

Now I didn't.

The absence of that certainty felt wrong in a way I couldn't properly explain. It sat somewhere beneath my ribs, heavy enough to notice but impossible to remove. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that walking into a crowded room full of people wouldn't make any of it disappear. The noise would still be there afterward. The questions would still be there afterward. Whatever was happening inside my own head would simply be waiting for me once the distraction ended.

"I don't think I can do that right now."

My voice sounded quieter than I intended, though I wasn't sure why. There wasn't any anger left behind the words. No frustration. No resistance. Just honesty. The thought of pretending this conversation hadn't happened felt impossible now that it had. Alsin hadn't given me answers. If anything she had left me with more questions than I started with. Yet somehow that didn't make me resent her for it.

"I think if I try to ignore it, it'll just be waiting for me later."

The words felt true the moment they left my mouth. Uncomfortable, but true.

For a few moments I searched for something else to say and found very little. Gratitude wasn't something that came naturally to me. Most of the things I was thankful for in life were practical. Food. Shelter. Equipment. Opportunities. Things that had obvious value. This conversation didn't feel valuable. It felt painful. It felt exhausting. It felt like someone had taken pieces of my life apart and left them scattered across the floor without showing me how they fit back together.

Yet I couldn't deny that it mattered.

"You gave me a lot to think about."

The admission felt awkward as soon as I said it. My eyes lowered toward the floor between us while I tried to make sense of why. Maybe because it felt like admitting she had gotten through defenses that were supposed to keep people out. Maybe because I wasn't used to thanking people for forcing me to look at things I would rather avoid.

"I think I need to sit with it for a while."

A slow breath escaped me before I finally looked back toward her.

"Thank you, Alsin."

The words felt strange in a way that surprised me. Not because I didn't mean them. Because I did.

That was the strange part.

Silence settled between us after that, and for the first time since the conversation began I found that I wasn't in a hurry to escape it. Earlier I would have found a reason to leave. I would have gone to train, checked equipment, found work, anything that gave me an excuse to move before the thoughts had a chance to catch up. Now the idea of walking away felt wrong. The conversation wasn't finished. Not really. The words had ended, but the thoughts they left behind were still moving.

Without thinking about it, my hand drifted toward one of the pouches at my belt. The motion was familiar enough that I barely noticed it until my fingers closed around the whetstone resting inside. The worn edges settled comfortably into my palm as I pulled it free. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew what came next. The knife should have followed. The routine was simple. Familiar. Something I had done often enough that I no longer needed to think about it.

Except the knife never left its sheath.

I sat there staring at the whetstone for a moment before my thumb moved across its surface. The rough texture felt familiar beneath my skin. The motion repeated itself a second time, then a third, until eventually I realized I wasn't reaching for the knife at all. I was simply holding the stone.

The realization should have embarrassed me.

Instead it felt oddly natural.

My thumb continued tracing along the worn grooves carved into its surface by years of use while my thoughts drifted back toward everything Alsin had said. None of it made more sense than it had before. The questions were still there. The uncertainty was still there. I still didn't know what I was supposed to be without the things that had defined me for so long. Yet while those thoughts continued turning over inside my head, the whetstone remained exactly what it had always been. Solid. Familiar. Unchanged.

Maybe that was why I kept holding it.

Somewhere beyond the room people were celebrating. Music. Conversation. Laughter. Life continuing the way it always had. For once I didn't feel any desire to join it. The noise felt distant compared to the thoughts sitting in front of me. So I remained where I was, turning the stone slowly through my fingers while questions moved through my head without answers. For the first time in a long while I wasn't trying to outrun them. I wasn't burying them beneath training, work, or violence. I was simply letting them exist, even if I didn't know what to do with them yet.

That, more than anything else, felt unfamiliar.

Alsin Vex

 

[Dral-Kar'ta Saandyr]

Objective 1, The Fires of Keldable
TAG: Prisoner #36929 Kael Varr Bastiel Skirata Veyla Krinn


It was the way among his people to accept others into the fold. Blood and lineage was to be respected but it was devotion to the creed and one's own actions, not blood, that made a person truly Mandalorian. He looked about. "Mandalorians have endured many years without a Mandalor, a place to call home. Our Clans were our home and our honor was our bond. Now that we stand here on Mandalore under the rule of our chosen Mand'alore we have a place of belonging other than scatted coverts and camps where anyone can make a place for themselves. This festival is to reinforce just that. To show that we can be and are more than scattered bands of refugees." He said echoing Veyla's sentiment of belonging and upon her suggestion about asking questions and listening to stories he decided to tell one about himself.

"This reminds me of a time when I was all but 15. It was two years after my verd'goten so I thought of myself as a seasoned warrior. My family had a large nerf ranch in the plains of Maridun and we were having issues with predation by the local wildlife so I and two of my friends put on our shiny new armor, grabbed our blasters, a sack of harshun bread and gihaal and went out into the plains to hunt the creatures down. Well… it turned out the creatures were a pair of mastiff phalones." He looked at his companions. "If you do not know of mastiff phalones, they are quadruped flightless avians about the size of a landspeeder and when agitate can be as dangerous as a rancour and just as hard to bring down.

"I can tell you it did not take us long to realize that we had bitten off more than we could chew but phalones are fast and wily so escape was not an option. They are adept at ambush hunting and using the long grass to attack their prey from behind so we placed ourselves back-to-back in a triangle, each of us were covering the others backs and fought off their attacks with blasters and stun pikes. Alone we would have been easy prey but together, knowing that we could trust each other, we managed to bring them both down."

He fell silent recalling the emotions of the time. "It was a valuable learning experience, one that we were lucky to walk away from. It impressed upon me that it was not simply bravery and bluster that won fights but planning, trust and support that enabled victory." He shook his head. "And… luck. One can not discount the factor of luck."

 

[Siv Kryze]

.​

SUNDARI​

​

The first turn came and went in a blur of noise and speed.

Siv had tapped the brakes just enough to settle the B&W-17 before turning in, keeping the swoop tight to the inside line. No wasted movement. No fighting the machine. Just a smooth arc through the corner.

It paid off.

By the time he exited the turn, he found himself clear of the pack.

Not by much, but enough.

The basin opened ahead of him, the track stretching into the distance beneath the lights of Sundari. Behind him, engines still fought for position, but he wasn't interested in looking back for long.

A quick glance in the mirror told him what he needed to know.

Adelle had fallen in behind after taking a wider line through the corner, while the rest of the field was beginning to bunch up around her.

Siv returned his attention forward.

The race was still far too early to think about placement. One good corner meant nothing if you threw the next one away.

Wind rolled across the basin, tugging at the swoop as he lowered himself closer to the frame and opened the throttle a little more. The B&W-17 responded eagerly, pulling harder down the straight.

For now, he had clean air ahead of him.

And that was exactly where he intended to stay.

Braking Modifier (-1)

 

[Alsin Vex]

Alsin smiled as she heard Perseus. He sounded genuine. Like he did really need time to process things, and that was something she understood all too well. She’d still been trying to figure things out, and maybe she needed this time to process some. Talk with someone who seemed to know how it felt.

She sat there quietly for another minute or two, but she knew some would be trying to find her. In fact she had shifted her focus, noticing someone starting to move that way. She sighed a bit standing up before extending a hand towards where Perseus was sitting.

”Well they’re looking for me…. It was nice to meet you Perseus.” She said. Even if she couldn’t actually see him, she still felt like this had gone well. Meeting someone outside her new clan. She turned around and decided to go ahead and make sure the Mandalorian looking for her wouldn’t disrupt her new friend’s thinking.

Perseus

 

[Perseus]

I heard the movement before I looked up. The sound of her standing was enough to pull my attention away from the whetstone still resting in my hands. At some point I had forgotten why I had taken it out in the first place. The rough surface sat beneath my thumb while my fingers continued tracing familiar patterns across it. What began as an excuse to occupy my hands had turned into something else entirely.

My gaze lifted toward her as she spoke.

Well they're looking for me.

For a moment I simply nodded. The words made sense. Of course they were looking for her. People had been looking for her before we even started talking. The gathering was still going on. Life was still moving around us whether I understood my place in it or not. I noticed her hand extended toward me. The gesture caught me off guard more than it should have.

My eyes lingered on it for a second before I finally reached up and accepted it. The movement felt awkward. Unfamiliar. Not because I didn't know what she was doing, but because so few people had ever offered something so simple without wanting anything in return. I stood slowly. The whetstone disappeared back into its pouch.

"It was nice meeting you too."

The words came easier than most things had that night. Maybe because they were true. I hesitated briefly before continuing.

"And..."

The rest caught somewhere behind my teeth for a moment. Not because I didn't know what I wanted to say. Because saying it felt strangely vulnerable after everything else.

"Thank you."

My attention drifted toward the floor briefly before returning to her.

"For listening."

The admission felt more honest than I was entirely comfortable with. I wasn't thanking her for fixing anything. Nothing had been fixed. If anything, there were more questions in my head now than when the conversation started. The difference was that they no longer felt like something I needed to run from immediately. That was new. My grip tightened briefly around the strap of the pouch at my side.

"You gave me a lot to think about."

A faint breath escaped me. Not quite a laugh. Not quite frustration either.

"More than I was planning on."

There was no accusation in it. If anything, it sounded almost bewildered. Because when the conversation started, I had expected another difficult social interaction with someone I barely knew. Instead I was standing there trying to figure out what my life looked like if survival wasn't the answer to every question. I still didn't know. I wasn't sure I would know for a long time.

But for the first time, that uncertainty didn't feel quite as unbearable as it had an hour ago.

Alsin Vex