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Ventu/Early Life: Difference between revisions
→Alone in the Borderlands
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=Alone in the Borderlands= | =Alone in the Borderlands= | ||
The next year or two pass in a haze of emotional memory: Lily can remember journeying, exploring, and visiting whatever struck her fancy, but few specifics. She was never taken home, either, and whether that was because of her parents' reluctance to force her back or her own luck in avoiding whoever was looking for her, she was never sure. All she really knows of that time is that she was running - every day, she set a course that led away from Earth and the galactic center, out towards where the arms of the Milky Way grew sparse. <br> | |||
[[Image:Lily20s.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Lily the renegade]] | |||
Two years after setting out, Lily's adapted to her new life of living fat off the benevolence of Federation citizens and colonies. However, she finds herself at the edge of the Federation sphere of influence and the beginning of the Borderlands, territory which is claimed by no race or power other than the pirate cartels and sects that form, change, and fall apart daily. The previous years have given Lily a twisted view of her own independence, and she continues on. <br> | |||
All the while, she has been weaning herself off her medications, since they become increasingly difficult to replace. By the time she enters the Borderlands, she's almost completely med-free, thanks to various on-the-fly treatment programs and a strong mix of daily meditation and tea.<br> | |||
Her one concession to the possible dangers of the reason is the possible trace of her name, and so she begins re-using Aresee as her first name. <br> | |||
For the next two years, Aresee explores the borderlands, moving on her regular path for the first and meandering more during the second. Towards the end of the second year, she makes the largest discovery of the whole trip: On a seedy station, she discovers a group of drunken aliens accosting a young girl, and she steps in. She rescues the girl, but incurs the wrath of a new cartel. She's chased from the Borderlands for good, and finds herself back in Federation space. <br> | |||
[[Image:Youngalexa10.jpg|thumb|left|100px|Alexa, the mysterious girl]] | |||
The girl - Alexa - had no family and no last name, though she wouldn't elaborate much on either, or how she ended up in the bar. Aresee, hardened by her stay in the Borderlands and her long time alone, nearly leaves the girl as she found her. It's the girl's lack of pleading that convinces her, in the end: She sees that the girl's been taught not to value her life, and so she's ready to fall wherever Aresee dumps her. In that moment of clarity and humanity, Aresee decides she's run far enough, and reverses her course. <br> | |||
It takes many months to return to the heart of Federation space, but her parents are, understandably, more relieved to see her than they are angry, and things are happy for a while. Her parents, acting on their own inscrutable motives, adopt Alexa themselves rather than offering her to an orphanage or other foster parents. | |||
=Returning to the Academy= | =Returning to the Academy= | ||