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| - Raised a fatherless child to a gutless Twi’lek, Layla spent her child hood years around brothels and bars while Kat’yana worked. As she grew older she learned her mothers profession and by her early teens, she was parading around in skimpy outfits and dancing for money, like she had seen most of her kind do growing up. There was something about her though that was different, it was the way she felt while performing and being manhandled. She took no joy or pride in it and often received complaints about her piss poor attitude towards the patrons. For the third time, she and her mother were traded/sold to another and began working on Tatooine. Eighteen now, her mother was beginning to show her age and was becoming less desirable. Clothed and maintaining house for Preatore, Layla watched Kat’yana continue to be worked to death, beat and taken advantage of. She often inquired as to why they had to live like that and was in turn smacked any time she spoke of running away or buying their freedom (not that they could afford too though), Kat’yana woud repeat time and time again that they would have no life or be dead if it wasn’t for men like Preatore and that she should be thankful. Two weeks after her nineteenth birthday, in the dead of night, Layla packed her bags, left her useless mother a note and snuck out. She climbed to the top of the houses and businesses and made her way to the furthest bar. There she sat in the darkest corner, cloaked and unrecognized. She watched the men as they came and went and waited till she saw the right features, the right attitude and the wrong people approach. He was perfect, rough looking but a bit soft…she could see it in his eyes…not too much business, but having just brokered a deal to carry some cargo across the galaxy. When he left, she followed him out, staying far enough behind to be able to duck and hide when he turned. Then she lost him, as she recklessly walked in the open to try and find him, he grabbed her and pulled her into an alley. She put on her innocent yet begging face. It kept her out of trouble sometimes and got her what she wanted so why not try it now. After going back and forth for a few moments and then letting him know that she had over heard his deal in the bar and was sure the local authorities would be interested as well, he permitted her to join him, but that she would have to pull her own weight and would be dropped off at the next planet. Five years later, Layla and Darius were still roaming the galaxy and completing odd little jobs here and there. He had taught her his trade and even a bit of mechanics when it came to his ship. There wasn’t much room for cargo, but it was enough for a heavy load and for them to get through most areas inconspicuously. He taught her to use a blaster and how to pilot the ship, what questions to ask and what to say no to (though that was a very rare answer), and he taught her how to bargain for higher pay. The life a smuggler, while not grand was definitely 100 times better than her life as a slave had been, and THIS was something that she could take pride in. It wasn’t but another year or two when he suggested that they start dividing the work. She was surprised at his suggestion, though once he explained the monetary benefit of it all she understood. Not sure that it would work out the way he thought, she trusted Darius with her life so she trusted him on this. When she turned 26, he took her to a shipyard where a buddy of his had something waiting and prepped. She threw her arms around him and was all but crying. The ship was beautiful and she couldn’t have asked for anything more, especially for him after all he had done for her. She ran her hands over the folded up wings and climbed to the top of the cockpit. It was in as good of condition as she had ever seen one this old, but it was hers…all hers. A set of new blasters were in the pilot’s seat and a new belt to go with them. Realizing that what they had talked about was now going to happen she looked over at him, as he had followed her into the ship and she smiled sadly. They agreed to meet up three times a year, at the same bar they had meet and one the same day. Thus began her life on her own, but now she had family to speak of. Family that cared and loved her and didn’t look at her as a burden. Family that had taught her life saving skills and how to make her own money, family that she could count on.
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