Happier times

Things are looking up now!  We've been on Taris for a few weeks now helping out where we could while we looked for this vault that is holding the astrogation charts.  There are so many sad stories here and we've helped out where we could.  There are pirates, scavengers, and these things called rakghouls running around.  The scariest thing about the rakghouls is that they used to be regular people.  There is some kind of disease that turns you into one of those things.  We ended up working with this doctor trying to find a vaccine for the disease and I somehow let myself get talked into getting infected.  It wasn't the easiest thing to go out and find a rakghoul and then let it scratch and bite me, but I was brave and did what had to be done.  The vaccine worked though, and I haven't turned into one of those things.  The doctor said everything looks good and I shouldn't have to worry.  

It took a lot of favors and poking around, but we finally found the vault!  When Corso and I got there though, there were these stinky mercenaries standing in front of the vault door.  (I really mean stinky too, we could smell them before we could see them!  Is it some kind of rule that mercenaries shouldn't bathe?)  They were hired by that scumbag Skavak and of course figured we would be easy kills.  This girl held her own and after a quick gunfight we entered the vault and there were the astrogation charts!  We picked them up and headed back to the ship.  

Once we were back on the ship we gave the charts to Risha.  She then started to tell me a story about pirates and murder and riches and things.  Listening to her made me feel like a little girl.  I'm sure my eyes were full of wonder while Risha was spinning her tales.  I think I may have even giggled a few times!  Everything feels so right now that I have my ship back!  Everything seems to be going my way!  And then the strangest thing happened.

We ended up opening this bottle of ale that we had found on board.  Corso and I drank for a while and talked about this and that.  And then he made a pass at me!  I was so surprised at first!  And after he made the pass, I kind of suddenly realized how cute he really is.  I did what I could to encourage him, but he stopped himself and apologized to me.  He said I didn't deserve to be treated like some hutt's slave dancer.  He obviously doesn't know that that's exactly what I was for most of my life.  I didn't know what to say.  He said I deserved to have someone strong to take care of me.  I really like Corso.  I'll have to think about all of this later.  I never thought something could happen between someone like me and someone like him.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see if something does.  For now, I'm really happy.

Oh and even though we retrieved the astrogation charts we were here to find, I think we're going to spend a bit more time on Taris before we leave.  I want to keep helping people out here, at least for a little while.  No one ever helped me when I was a slave.  Doing things for these people makes me feel good inside.  I'll write again once we finally decide to head to the next system.

I've got my ship back!

Finally, a vid of me!  And it was taken on the bridge of my ship!  Yes, Corso Riggs and I did finally get my ship back!  It wasn't easy, though.  We found it docked in the Corouscant docking area.  We were hoping to catch Skavak there too, but all we found was this alien ship merchant who said he was there to buy my ship.  Unfortunately for him, my ship isn't for sale.  I figured this guy was just some weak merchant, but he ended up being pretty tough.  Corso got pretty banged up and I nearly died in the fight!  We did finally beat the merchant down and he offered to give us a few upgrades on my ship if we let him go alive.  So now I not only have my ship back, but it has a few improvements!

When Corso and I went on board we were in for a few surprises.  The first surprise was that I now have a new shipboard droid called C2-N2!  He greeted us and said he is now my property.  He calls me "Master" and I'm not really comfortable with that.  It brings back too many slave memories.  I tried getting him to just call me Twicella or Captain, but he said that would go against his programming.  So for now I'll just have to get used to him.  It really is nice to have someone (something?) that cooks and cleans for us.  And he really is a friendly droid.  He likes to make things for us when we bring him back the raw materials too, so he's pretty handy!

My slave girl feelings disappeared the moment I stepped back onto my ship!  It was like coming home!  And after meeting C2-N2 I got my second surprise.  We went to check the cargo hold and there was this woman working there!  Her name is Risha and at first I thought she was just another one of Skavak's sleazy whores.  It turns out she doesn't like him and was working to beat Skavak to this treasure vault.  It's the treasure of some guy called Nok Drayen or something like that.  The weapons I had in my cargo hold are now gone and she has all of this other stuff she said we need to trade to find the treasure vault.  After talking to her for a bit, Corso and I decided we could take Risha on as a temporary partner.  Temporary until we make sure she isn't just still working for Skavak and going to turn on us later.

Once we had secured the ship we took off right away!  First thing I get a comm from that idiot Skavak trying to threaten me.  He said he's going to catch up with me and kill me.  He's in for a big surprise because he's not dealing with the frightened little slave girl I used to be, he's now dealing with a trader captain who's won her fair share of scraps!  Bring him on!  One other problem is a guy called Rogun the Butcher.  He was who I was supposed to deliver the weapons shipment to that is now gone.  He's put a price on my head and now I keep running into these bounty hunters trying to take me in dead or alive.  What a pain in the butt!

Working with Risha we decided that our first port of call would be a system called Taris.  I'm sorry I ever even heard the name of this place.  I guess it used to have great cities hundreds of years ago, but some Sith guy destroyed most of everything.  To be honest, the planet stinks.  Everywhere we go it just smells bad here.  And the refugees that are all around...I feel so bad for them!  As a slave my life wasn't the best, but some of these poor people have nothing.  A lot of them I've met have been run out of their homes by pirates, or scavengers, or even just horrible creatures!  I went to a small overrun settlement for some of them and brought back a few of their personal items for them.  When any one of them asks me for help, it's just too hard for me to say no.  They were all so grateful for the small things I brought back for them.  I really wish I could do more.

Anyway, we need to find this astrogation chart that's somewhere on this stinky system.  I guess Skavak is trying to beat us to the stuff we'll need to find this treasure, but he has no idea where to look for anything.  Risha has most of the information!  Ha ha!  After a lot of legwork we found out that it's in this place called zone zero.  We'll be on our way there shortly.  Hopefully things will go well when we get there.  But then when has anything been easy lately?  I'll never get this smell out of my clothes, ugh!

For right now at this moment, I'm happy!  I'm so happy, I decided to dance.  But not in a cantina, I danced in the Captain's cabin on my ship, right on my bed!  And I took a short vid of myself to put on my blog.  Yes, I'm a bit undressed, but I still thought everyone might like to see me happy and dancing.  Hopefully I'll be writing in this journal again soon about how we found the astrogation chart.  Until then, enjoy the vid!

I need my ship!

Well, here we are on Coruscant.  We're still chasing that scumbag Skavak trying to get my ship back.  I need my ship.  It's more than just a huge mechanical thing to me, in a lot of ways it represents my freedom.  I wish Remo were here to tell me what to do.  I miss him so much!  Stupid pirates!  

Without my ship I've been falling back into some old habits and feelings.  Slave habits and feelings.  As far as I know I haven't shown any of this outwardly yet, but if I don't get my ship back it's only a matter of time.  One of the first things you learn as a slave, if you're smart, is to think before you speak.  The last thing you want to do is to offend your master or one of his guests and then have to face punishment for it.  Remo always told me that same thing too, think before you open your mouth.  So usually before I say anything, I stop and think about what's going on around me and who I'm talking to.  Well the other day Corso and I were talking and he asked me if I was ok.  He said I looked a bit depressed.  The first reply that came into my mind was to say "I'm fine, master".  Master.  Corso is my friend, not my master.  I caught myself before I said anything and eventually just said yes, leaving out the master part.  Without my ship I'm feeling so much more like a slave again.

Corso also likes the cantinas.  I like them too, but when we go in them now, I'm still feeling a lot of my old slave feelings.  I hear the music and want to start dancing.  But not dancing for myself, I feel like I should be dancing for the people around me.  I feel like I should be doing everything I can to make the people around me feel comfortable and happy.  I should be wanting to make myself happy, shouldn't I?  Don't I have the right to feel happy myself now?  I'm not a slave anymore!  I should have the right to want to do things for myself now, not just make life better for other people!

Forgetting all my bad feelings, Corso and I ran into this law enforcement officer alien guy named Miel.  Miel was also chasing Skavak for stealing this expensive gem.  Corso and I saved Miel from some bounty hunter idiot and he agreed to pass us any information he found out about Skavak.  It's nice to have friends to help you out when you really need it.  This next part really makes me feel bad.  I hope I can get this written down before I start to cry.

Corso and I finally caught up with Skavak.  He was down deep in this mechanical part of Coruscant and it turns out he was working with some Imperial military guys!  He was trying to sell them a fake copy of the gem he had stolen from Miel's planet!  We tried to put a stop to the deal and ended up having to fight and kill the Imperials, but Skavak got away again.  Before he left though, he shot Miel.  I knelt down there and held Miel's hand while he died.  There was nothing I could do.  It was so hard to just watch while a friend faded away like that, even if I hadn't known him for very long.  His last wish was for me to get Skavak for him and that's exactly what I'm going to do!  

We've finally tracked down my ship!  It's at the spaceport and we should find Skavak there, too.  We're going there right now to take care of that whomprat and get my ship back!  I hope things work out.  I don't want to fall back into being a slave again.  For better or worse, we're coming for you Skavak, and this time you won't escape!

The start of things

Hi, my name is Twicella, and this is my story.  Well, my story from when things really started to count.  You see, I'm a female Twi'lek.  The picture above kind of shows off what my people look like.  That's not me, that's a Twi'lek named Vette.  I'll have to work on seeing if I can get some vids of myself to add to my blog, but that picture at least give you sort of an idea what I look like.  As a female Twi'lek I was born a slave.  I was brought up as an "entertainer" and taught how to dance, sing, and generally seduce males of all species.  I dreaded the day when I would have to maybe do more than dance and sing.  Before that happened though, a freighter captain happened along and was gambling with my master.  This captain had an extraordinary run of luck and ended up winning me in a high stakes game.  I was sent aboard the freighter captain's ship and told to wait for him to return and claim his new prize.  To tell the truth, I was frightened out of my mind.  This captain was a human.  I had no idea what was going to become of me.

To make a long story short, the Captain's name was Remo Stout.  It turns out Remo was one of the nicest beings I've ever met and treated me with more respect than I had ever known in my entire life.  He became like a father to me.  Remo taught me to fly a starship and together we traveled around the galaxy trading all kinds of things.  Sadly, Remo one day had a run in with a few pirates and was killed.  All I had left of him was our freighter.

Out on my own for the first time I took a job delivering some weapons and things to a horrible little system called "Ord Mantell" or something like that.  I don't even know if I spelled that right.  It's a dirty little planet that's fighting a war with some "separatists".  I didn't want to get involved, but somehow I ended up sucked into everything and some jerk named Skavak stole my freighter and all the freight on board!

I did what I could to find this Skavak jerk and ended up with a new partner named Corso Riggs.  Corso's a nice guy and we've been getting along pretty well while trying to track down the rat who stole my ship.  Frankly, I'm glad to have the company.  And he's not bad with a blaster, either!  After finally getting off of Ord Mantell, Skavak's trail led us to the Coruscant system.  I guess this could be a nice place, but I'm more interested in getting my ship back than seeing the sites.

So for now we're running around on Coruscant trying to get information.  At one point we came across this alien guy whining about how his mate had been kidnapped into slavery and was being forced to dance in a local club.  Just talking to this guy brought back memories of having to dance myself and so we went to rescue this poor girl.  Once we got to the club, Corso and I found out that the girl hadn't been kidnapped at all!  She was just tired of listening to her idiot boyfriend, or mate, or whatever whine all the time!  She actually wanted to dance in the club!  I left her there and said I would tell her mate that she was gone.  That wasn't the worst of things, though.

Being in the club was a horrible experience for me.  It brought out a lot of feelings and emotions and I'm not sure how I want to feel about them.  When we first walked in and I could hear the music, I felt excitement flood through me.  After talking to the supposedly kidnapped girl and finding out she was there because she wanted to be there, part of me wanted to dance again, too.  And I did.  I danced and smiled and felt safe and warm.  A few other Twi'lek women joined me and we danced together for a bit.  I could see Corso watching and a small part of me was happy that I was entertaining him.  

And for a little while it felt like I belonged there in the club.  Part of me wanted to be watched and lusted after as I danced and sang.  But after a bit I realized that's not what I really want.  I want my freedom.  I want my freighter back.  The public entertainer part of my life is over with now.  I need to find my ship.  So after dragging Corso out of the club we went back on the hunt for that rat Skavak.

But to be honest, I may go back for a bit once I get my ship back.  I realize that I do like to dance for others sometimes.  And I will again, but only when I want to this time.  And I'll be dancing as a free Twi'lek!