Somewhere I belong

[Brooke Waters]

Token loved meeting people, and all that went with it. Sure, sometimes folk were different and she didn’t really know how to handle them, but thecuteones certain people she made her attempts to get to know. Especially if they seemed like someone she could get to know and wanted to keep around. And eating with someone was a nice way to see how they were, in Token’s mind.

The way someone treated wait staff said a lot.

Looking to her new friend(?) she smiled as they waited to collect their orders. Nervously biting her lip, she was trying to figure out just what to say. And that’s when Sindy spoke up. “Oh… I guess I never thought of it? I’ve got some money saved up and was just figuring I’d… I really don’t know.” She was blushing. She had zero plans. And that was a sad thing, wasn’t it?

“Yeah. I guess I can’t stay on vacation forever… Ha! I guess I'm pretty open, huh?” She pursed her lips, trying to think. “What about you?”

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

What about me?

Sindy honestly didn't have a real answer for that. It wasn't something she'd put a whole lot of thought into, apart from... maybe, doing something slightly different for a while. Sure there was the security and predictability of regular employment, but that was more to prove something to... well, who now? Herself? Certainly not her father. He had made it very clear where he stood with respect to her. It didn't hurt. It was just the matter of adjusting to having the centre of her support network gone, and the fallout from that. She had managed, but she still missed what was.

"Same." She admitted. "No real plans yet."

Then their order was ready. Smiling at Token, they went up to the order counter and retrieved their food, wasting no time in slipping out of the establishment that had filled up behind them while they were standing around waiting. They headed down to where she'd set up the beach umbrella, and Sindy set down the bag that contained her burger and fries, and the disposable drink cup in the sand, so that she could pull out the towel she'd been sitting on before out of her bag, and lay it out on the sand under the umbrella.

"Yeah, no plans at all. But I figure something in line with my skills is the obvious choice..." Sindy clarified, lowering herself down onto the large beachtowel, setting aside her beach bag, and twisting around to retrieve her food and drink. "...but hopefully a little different from what I had before."

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Sometimes it wasn’t ever the destination that mattered. Just how someone was going to get there, wasn’t it? That was what Token felt. She knew she had read that somewhere. She felt like she had read something about everything somewhere. That was one thing she missed, was her physical books. But she did have the electronic reader her father had given her with the promise to keep her books safe while she was away for school.

Now she wasn’t in school, and didn’t have a job, but had some money that she was trying to budget. She knew there would be more if she requested it, there was the family trust, but she couldn’t live off of that, could she? No, then she’d be one of those girls. Could she? Probably a terrible idea.

She wanted to make it through the world.

“Yeah, sometimes that’s tricky, but we’ll all get to plans somewhere, right?” That… no Token, that wasn’t a full sentence. Or even really Basic.

Following her new friend, she grabbed her own food and drink and stepped out onto the sand. The beach was always one of those places that felt like home, and was always happy for Token. Stepping up to the beach towel, she pointed. “You mind?” It was kind of getting in close, not to mention Sindy’s towel. Token didn’t mind sitting right on the sand, but… well, towel!

“See, I am still a student, it makes it kind of tricky. I mean, I could probably work for my father's company." But really, what could she do that would still let her travel? Silly Token, that is called galactic advertising. She looked at Sindy with a smile and a shrug before taking a bite of her burger. Food!

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy was sipping at her milkshake, having not dug into the bag with her burger and fries, when Token pointed at the huge towel, and asked if she could sit. The platinum blonde young woman pulled the straw from her mouth, and looked at Token insistently.

"No! Please, sit." She said, popping the end of the straw back in her mouth again, while watching her new friend take a seat. Another couple of sips, and she smiled. "You sound like you don't really want to work for your father."

Her eyes went out to the sea again.

"Neither did I." She admitted. "Uhm, work for my father, I mean. With my father. As fascinating as law is, it's really, really not my... thing."

Sindy took another sip of her milkshake, then set it aside and went for her takeout bag, pulling out the burger, unwrapping it, and taking a bite. She looked thoughtful, glancing at Token, then out at the sea again.

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

She didn’t like to impose, the blonde just wasn’t built that way. She giggled and slowly moved to sit down. It wasn’t that Token wasn’t graceful, but she didn’t want to drop anything, and wanted to at least not make an idiot of herself. She laughed a little and nodded. She fixed her dress as she stretched her legs out, taking a sip of her smoothie.

“Well, I could, but I just dunno if I want to?” She shrugged. “It just… I feel I can do more?” Not that running a shipping company was less, but it wasn’t really what Token wanted from life. That was hard to admit.

And besides, she could stay a shareholder, right? Maybe not majority shareholder… but still some of the shares.

“See? Exactly! We aren’t always meant to follow our parents.” Token giggled and nodded. She took a look at Sindy, maybe it lingered a little too long, but she didn’t seem too worried, before looking back at the sea. Right, there was food. But pretty girl. Right, Token. Focus.

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

This burger was delicious and exactly what she needed. She chewed silently, pulling a fry out of its container within the bag, and popped it in her mouth once the most recent bite of burger had gone down. She was hungry - her appetite was always gigantic - but there was still a conversation happening, and she had company, and it wouldn't be polite to scarf down on her meal with reckless abandon, now would it? Sindy pulled out a napkin and dabbed at her mouth, then set it neatly aside, holding the partly-unwrapped burger in two hands in her lap.

"I think I know what I want, for now." She said, pursing her lips momentarily. "I've always been in school, or working. I'd like..."

She flicked her eyes to Token.

"...I'd like to do neither of those things for a while, just to see what it's like. I want to know how it feels to live the life that someone with my background and means is stereotypically supposed to enjoy."

Sindy held the burger in one hand, and picked up her milkshake with the other, pulling a long sip from the straw.

"I mean... not that I haven't experienced some of it, but it's never been sustained, my priorities have always been different. I want to know what it's like to do things that most people consider fun, all day and all night. Like an experiment, I suppose." This was when she smiled... was it knowingly?... at Token. "And I think you might be able to help me with that. You seem like the type... um, of person that I'd really like to do things like that with."

No insult meant, of course. It was a compliment... sort of. There was really no harm in making use of people for what they might excel at. Though, the more Sindy thought about it, this probably wasn't the way most people went about it.

@[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Beach food was always good. Token couldn’t think of a better thing, really. Especially when she was with someone she liked, or sort of liked, or felt she would like to get to know, whatever the feeling in her head was. Words were tricky things, after all. Probably why she preferred to just deal with feelings without words.

Looking to Sindy, she nodded. Get out of school and out of work. She knew how to do that, it was what she had been doing for a few months now, after all. “I know what that’s like! Getting out and wanting to stay out. Its… nice, almost intoxicating, if you get the drift of that?” She wanted to go back to school, but she really did, but for now? She was going to avoid that. Just kind of do her own thing!

Chewing on her straw, she was listening, and nodding. “Traveling? And stopping by fun places, getting into trouble?” She giggled. Trouble? Right, because this was Token, all the trouble she got into was completely coincidental and not planned. Just sort of happened. Blame men and the right women.

“Really?” She smiled. “I mean, I’d love company, because, y’know…” She shrugged. “I’m traveling and avoiding responsibility for a bit longer!” She smiled wide. Was this a come on? Maybe not, but still!

@[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy's smile turned into a mild grin. It was pleasing to hear that Token was up for it. She was already beginning to quite like this other girl, and she kind-of wanted to see how far that went. If they could be friends. Friends were tricky for the half-echani girl, because there either seemed to be nothing but air between their ears, or the level of accomplishment she had already attained in life made them jealous. She didn't get jealousy at all.

"Avoiding responsibility..." she began, the words trailing off. She thought about it for a moment. "...yes, I guess you could call it that. Let's 'avoid' responsibility together for a while, then."

A very small part of her felt just a little bit bad for wanting to do this at all. She had always been a good, dependable, responsible girl. 'So grown up', some would say when she was a child, but for the most part, it felt frightening, and exciting, to do something else. Sindy set aside her milkshake and took up the burger again, lifting it to her mouth... but before she took a bite, her eyes flicked to [member="Token Waters"], again taking in the girl she would be spending a bit more time with, a short giggle slipping out of her as she bit into her burger once again.

 

[Brooke Waters]

Token could get jealous, sure, but it wasn’t common. She typically got excited. People were all different and did all sorts of things! That was important and fun, getting to learn it all and go from where people went and just do everything. People were always awesome.

Always.

“I’d like that! I bet its fun!” Granted, this was a girl picking up another at a burger bar on the beach? Who was to blame for this intelligent decision? Most likely Token, she was really trusting of people. Not that it ever ended badly. Except a few times, but it taught Token a lot of who she was. That was important.

Poor girl.

Blushing, she couldn’t help but keep looking at Sindy. This would be a good choice, right? “Where haven’t you been?” She smiled. Her ship wasn't far, they could go anywhere!
[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy chewed, and swallowed, and took another bite of the burger, and chewed and swallowed again, thinking on where she hadn't been. That was a lot of places. Amfar, Brentaal IV, Corellia, Coruscant, and Cularin were the primaries where she had spent a lot of time growing up. There was a handful of others, like Zeltros for example, that she had only set foot on once. The half-echani girl almost took yet another bite, but stopped herself short, and answered the question posed to her.

"There's a lot of places I haven't been to, yet, really. How about you?"

Then she took another bite of that delicious, stomach-pleasing burger, and tried to think of every single planet she had ever visited for as far back as she could recall, watching [member="Token Waters"] out of the corner of her eye.

 

[Brooke Waters]

See. This was kind of the best thing for Token. People were awesome and when they had a lot in common to her, or even not in common but she just felt... right about someone it was nice. Sipping the smoothie, she licked at her lower lip, pulling it between her teeth and thinking. This was a good thing, the thoughts, right?

"I've done a fair bit of traveling. But I've been told you don't really see a place until you share it." Something about the beat memories being shared?

Giving a smile at the echani girl, she nodded. "And with each new friend it brings new experiences. So it's always fun to repeat places. Except the Ordinance world's. They're blah..." well for her. Maybe Sindy would like them?

[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy shook her head.

"I won't make you go anywhere you don't want to, if you don't make me go anywhere I don't want to," she said, before taking another big bite of her burger. Three more good-sized bites and the burger would be gone. "And maybe at some point we can find somewhere to be, whether that's the same place for the both of us or not."

Time to be realistic!

"Besides," she continued, picking up her milkshake with the other hand and taking a short sip, "we might find we can't stand each other."

She smiled just short of a grin, looking slyly, pointedly at Token.

"Not that I'm seeing any such indication right now."

[member="Token Waters"]

 

[Brooke Waters]

Token smiled at the Echani. They weren't going to go anywhere neither wanted, and well, Token wanted to see the entire galaxy, somehow, so that... left a lot of places open! Basically wherever Sindy didn't want to go, and Token could probably sneak out there if she tried hard enough, right? Of course she could, trust funds and everything. Taking another bite of her burger, she nodded. "That sounds like a nice plan!" And if they made it together? Why not! Right? Right.

Of course.

"I dunno, I've been told I can get pretty excited. A lot." She shrugged, biting her lip. "So if you can deal with that..." Really, the only complaint, but men would be men. And who knew how [member="Siyndacha Aerin"] handled that sort of personality quirk.