#3963

“Hey, of course you will. The way they look at me, through me, I can’t live with that anymore.”

For @judsonryder

@oliristhemisericord ( content warning: alcohol mention )

Nar Shaddaa was a planet of lights-- bright and neon and festive on the upper levels, dim and appropriately forbidding among the alleyways further down. Though he was only barely familiar with the city planet’s workings and etiquette, Kal headed immediately for the dimmer, seedier underbelly upon landing. He had a feeling that he no longer belonged among the lights. 

Kal had been to Nar Shaddaa once before, it was a hub for all kinds of people and Mandalorians weren’t excluded, but this was his first time visiting alone. Just before his exile, his mother had pulled him aside and told him that safe haven could be found there, in a cantina she and her partners had once frequented. They would pay for one trip off of Vorpa’ya, but if they saw him again after that the punishment would be death. So, to Nar Shaddaa he went. 

Reciting the instructions to himself, Kal tracked his way through the metallic streets from the spaceport to the cantina that his mother recommended-- Ten Leagues Below Contempt. Apparently it was safer than many of the others, and the owner could be trusted to some extent. It would be an excellent place to set up a base of operations while Kal got his feet under him and started hiring himself out to whoever would pay. 

From outside, the cantina was barely visible, but as he got closer Kal began to notice a certain glow. And, stepping inside, he could immediately see why.  Like the upper streets of Nar Shaddaa, the dark cantina was illuminated from within by lights of many colors, giving the entire space an ethereal feeling and making Kal feel instantly out of place. A rough soul in ill-fitting borrowed armor, he couldn’t escape the notion that everyone would immediately spot his inexperience.