Flashback: Kids Are The Worst

[Ferre]

Kids Are The Worst
A few years before Current Time... two kids, opposite in nature, are pulled by the force to meet under unlikely circumstances.
​

"Ow"
Seemingly alone on the empty cargo ship, an annoyed young Arkanian stuck a pierced finger into his mouth in an attempt to dull the pain. The offending item was a panel of circuits that lay bare, their parts half dismantled half rebuilt, with pieces that clearly did not belong, if not profane the image of the otherwise pristine ship. The child had been "experimenting" on it. While some children are known to wreak havoc by coloring on the walls, Arkanian children -those children born to a proud and arrogant species that touted a sense of pinnacle evolution- were a different kind of demon altogether.

His parents were never one to watch over him. And why bother? The city of Adascopolis on Arkania was completely enclosed. The safety rate of the city was impeccably high for those Arkanians living on it...though tourists were known to go missing from time to time under "suspicious" circumstances that often led to a cold trail. Perhaps they were trying to raise their child to be independent, but with no where to be and no one looking for him, Bast has managed to sneak his way to the space port and board a ship with one holy mission: to screw with it.

Often he would mess with droids back home, tear them apart and rebuild them to do the most embarrassing of things, borderline harassing those who sometimes took care of him in the place of his parents. Based solely on his personality and hobbies, it wasn't actually that surprising that no one was looking out for him.

A ship however, was much more complicated than a droid. Yet his hypothesis was simple: could he replace the finer components of the ship with useless components he found in his room? This led him to the present, messing with a circuit board, horrifying any ship-builder with his tactics, and probably impressing any average technician.

Shaking his hand and abused finger, Bast went to dive back into his work when he heard the sound of the ship's doors opening. Both the Cargo and the cockpit. He was trapped. Having previously banked on being able to escape out the other when one opened, the boy quickly shut the circuit door and dove behind some boxes of cargo.

He should've just admitted his wrong doing, but the proud boy did not. With both dismay, pride and fear, Bast felt the ship lift off the ground and fly into hyperspace. Apparently, his meddling still worked, but now there was no going back.

 

[Vic]

Colrey walked around in the endless seeming and always crowded streets of the Coruscant underworld. He was familiar with these streets, given he had lived here his whole life. He was smilng as always as he waved a bit at Ms.Idos, the nice old lady who ran a small cantina couple of streets down the small and dirty apartment building him and his mother called home. She was some of the few adults he knew that would actually be nice to him, giving him some candy and chatting with him from time to time .

His mother was sleeping at this rather early time of the day. She worked at night and slept during the day, cooking whatever food they had for Colrey to eat each night when she came back to find her son in an uneasy sleep. She didn't make much money from her dancer/"entertainer" job at the entertainment district and usualy spent this little money on mostly death sticks. She wanted him to have a better life, a better future but her addiction and the crimelords of the underworld who both fed her addiction and kept her from trying to go somewhere else were holding her back..

The dirty and crime driven alleys of the underworld were the least appropriate place for a child to grow up in, the streets hardened the though and consumed the weak. Agains all odds Colrey was still going on with his life and managing to find something that made him happy, playing with some of the other children who would walk the streets together, imagining what the outside world is like, the ting he wanted to see was something called "a star". He had never seen natural sunlight in his life and these huge burning balls of gas sounded amazing to him. He had overheard some travellers talk about them one day asked them what a star was, the man laughed at him and gave him the half assed definition mentioned before.

He looked around to the brightly lit neon lights of the city, different phrases like "Wares for good prices", "Meds for the weary traveler", "Finest girls in the Galaxy" were written in different languages, thanks to his time spent in the city and an old man that took care of a library who had time to teach a child how to read he could read and understand these few languages spoken in the Underworld, though he didnt understood the last one contentwise.

He came up to some of his friends and as usual they invited him to play which he accepted without consideration. They played tag, hide and seek and a weird game with a ball that he didnt know the name of for a while. As he was hiding from the "it" he found himself in the large ship hangar of the city, he hid behind a large crate of who knows what as he started to wait, giggling to himself a bit.

 

[Ferre]

Bast cringed, his small body uncomfortably snug inside a cargo container of cybernetic supplies, the top cracked for air. To make matters worse, he had been attempting to play in such a confined space. The "ball" -namely a broken off piece of equipment- that he had been yo-yoing from his hand to bounce off the ceiling of cargo box had finally missed it's intended target and landed fiercely on the area between his eye and cheek. Rubbing the area with the top of his wrist, Bast groaned with boredom, hunger, and an annoyance as he had been waiting for the ship to land for what seemed like forever, it's metallic hum reminding him that they were still in hyperspace. When it landed, he would crawl out, but not until then. If they checked on the cargo and saw him, they would for sure turn around and no Arkanian was very forgiving if they couldn't finish a job. However, once they were there, it'd be too late to do the "moral" thing. They could drop off their equipment, Bast would be found, they would return home and all would be fine...

All would be fine...

All would be-

.............

With a yawn, Bast woke up. Forgetting where he was caused the boy to bump his head on the roof of the now tightly closed container above. After the usual routine of cringing, rubbing and throwing a soft swear that children sometimes hesitated to do, Bast realized his air supply was sufficiently questionable.

Kicking the top of the box with all his strength, it popped open. The small Arkanian looking like a frantic diver who just came up for air as he gripped the frame of the cargo box panting.

He was no longer on the ship.

No...no no no no no.... The boy thought frantically, though his mannerisms were marked more by annoyance than by fear. The terminal where cargo was dropped off was loud and dirty, but no one seemed to notice Bast in his hour of need. The ship was completely out of sight and the whirl wind city of Coruscant surrounded him

Unusually calm after his initial dismay, Bast let out a sigh that would make one think this always happened to him.

The self-pity party that he had started in his mind was then crashed by the sound of a giggle. Bast crawled to the other side of the cargo container to see a boy around his age, tucked hidden between Bast's box and another.

 

[Vic]

The young boy was dirty and wore clothes that you didnt even know exist, nothing in this place was a shiny and clean white that you were so fond of. The boy looked happy even though he was hiding from someone. Was he just stupid? Why would anyone be happy when hiding from someone?

Colrey hid away from a Twi'lek girl that he knew and didnt seem to notice the other crawl down from the metal crate

 

[Ferre]

Bast raised a brow, what a strange filthy creature.

"You there" Bast called out to him loudly enough to sound authoritative, but quiet enough not to gain the attention of the citizens around him. "What city is this?"

His voice was mildly marked with disgust. Could this place even be considered a city?

 

[Vic]

"Huh..?" Colrey looked over at the voice and saw a boy around his age, he was pale and had white hair which was something weird to him. It was obvious he was a stranger here, he got up and smiled at him, his unnecesarry cheerfullness and sincerity was odd, almost suspecting "This is Coruscant.. Galactic City... " he told the stranger "Who are you?"

 

[Ferre]

"Bast." The boy responded shortly and absently, sliding down the side of the box. "Coruscant?" He responded, more to himself than anything.

The name wasn't wholly unfamiliar. The boy looked around, is this where fate was to strand him forever? In a hell hole?

 

[Vic]

"Mhm..!" Colrey nodded a bit as he walked towards this new figure, he seemed different but also around his age, and that's all he needed to know to try to make a new friend.

"Coruscant! The Galactic Capital... Never heard of it?" He asked him, he seemed familiar with this placeas he tried to interact more.

 

[Ferre]

"Yes I've heard of it-" The boy snapped abruptly, though his face quickly softened as he realized the boy was sincere.

"Actually I need a few things" The boy admitted, rattling off a list of technical parts that he assumed would be basic enough for any planet to possess. "Unless that is...Coruscant has at least has a galactic transmitter?"

He doubted it, but it was worth asking.

 

[Vic]

The boy lightly frowned in confusion as he didnt understand a thing from what he was saying "A Galactic What now..?" He then suddenly turned around as he heard his friend's voice calling out his name telling him he was it "Dangit..!" he turned to the crate and started to count before realizing you were still there "Hey umm.. do you wanna play with me and my friends? Its hide and seek"

 

[Ferre]

"Hide an-!" Bast's voice raised once more with incredulous anger...this was no time for playing.

However Bast stopped himself, his voice softening. He wasn't opposed to compromise in this perilous situation.

"Alright, I'll help you and then you help me" He pointed his finger at the boy with authoritative demand and then peeked around his shoulder with mild curiosity. "What is it we seek?"

 

[Vic]

he giggled a bit at his weird question, didn't he know hide and seek? No..he should know it.. Every kid does.. "I'm it right now... so you're supposed to hise..and I'll seek you .. haven't you played this game before?" He was getting more curious about his new friend Bast, he seemed like a funny person.

 

[Ferre]

Hide himself? What was the point?

The children on Akrania had a variant of this game, one where they would seek out warm objects hidden in the snow through use of their infrared vision. He couldn't think of one where he was required to seek another for no other purpose but to say he had found them.

"But how do I win?" Bast asked perplexed and frustrated. "If I hide, you might never find me, and then what?"

 

[Vic]

he frowned a bit more in confusion but thought that he was joking, some other children around your age were now around you, they all thought you were joking as no kid would say anything like that.

Colrey giggled a bit and patted your back a bit "You're really funny Bast... now go hide guys! 1...2...3..." the other kids started to run at different directions as he was counting, this game was very weird

 

[Ferre]

Bast rolled his eyes at the lack of information given as the children all bolted off in different directions. He sighed. The things he had to do to get spare parts...hopefully the galaxy would see his suffering.

With a hop of determination, Bast ran off and around the corner.

Focusing an energy not native to Arkanian's down to his feet, the boy was able to jump a little higher than a boy his age should. Jumping onto a trashcan and then grabbing hold of a roof extension in the same swift movement, Bast grunted with effort. Pulling himself up with a bit of a struggle, the boy settled himself squatting behind a rack of clothes that were drying outside what seemed to be an apartment near the base of the hanger.

From his bird's eye view, he would remain hidden, but he would be able to see the scene unfold on the ground beneath him.

 

[Vic]

"11...12..13 14 15! Ready or not! Here I come! " the boy yelled as he started to run around looking for the other children, he found them one by one as you watched. Though he wasnt doing things like you were, or even thinking about a hiding point like yours he seemed happy.

In facet as he found all of the others they laughed together and each time he would reveal someone's hiding poing they would laugh for a while and start to look for the others together. Smiles were never absent from their faces, it was stupid, unnecessary but it was nice to see that a child's smile still managed to blossom at this harsh enviroment

 

[Ferre]

Bast raised a brow as he waited behind the clothes. Well, at least they were enjoying themselves.

He rested his hand on his cheek and waited, thinking of the parts needed for his transmitter and a growing impatience.

 

[Vic]

They all looked around, some of them scattered around the area to look for you but it was useless, as some time passed the other kids started to leave one by one after saying goodbye to eachother and here he was, the boy that you saw when you cam here, sitting on a pavement as people walked past him.

The rest of his friends had left, this small playtime in the morning was just the one before school strated. He sat down somewhere and waited for them to come back from school as usual. He didnt go since they couldnt afford it. He thought about the boy he met earlier. Bast. "He must have gone somewhere.." he thought to himself.

 

[Ferre]

Bast waited a considerable amount of time, the kids drifting off one by one.

Finally the boy was alone once more and Bast wondered if this meant the game was finally over. Hopefully, as the kid's legs had fallen asleep from their locked position sitting on the roof.

Climbing down with relatively more ease than the journey up took, Bast walked over the boy. "So can we find some electronic parts now?"

 

[Vic]

Colrey was shaken out of his trance of thinking on the pavement by the sound of his new friend, he looked up and smiled widely as he saw that Bast was still around. "Oh..! Bast..! I thought you had left.." he got up and walked over to him enthusiastically.