A/N: Hello, it's been a long while since I wrote anything for this website! First off, I'm bad at Baronh, full stop, so usage will be rather limited to what I definitely know, mainly from the two novels I have and the anime (and so I will use a mix of novel and anime spellings for various Baronh phrases), and maybe a bit from the online dictionary it links. Also, this story is a work of fanfiction, I do not own the rights to the series. Hiroyuki Morioka owns all rights to the Seikai series, be it Seikai no Monshou or Seikai no Senki. I know this apparently isn't needed anymore, but old habits die hard. With that being said, onwards to the cast list!~
Main cast:
Bebaus Wef Dozeryua Kizelia - Connor Kelly-Eiding
Gordon Davidson - John Swasey
DeAndre Wilson - Xzibit
Lof Aronn Rekef Dairuzu Lyuf Ruseja - Allegra Clark
Abriel Nei Debrusc Dreu Abriel Ramaj - Michelle Armeneau
Abriel Nei Lamsar Larth Barker Dusanyu - Ethan Cole
I.C.Y. 956, a few months before the new year. A woman's tiny little decision would turn her entire life upside down. A social reject in the eyes of many, she isolated herself, living among the Landers instead. It was an exile she felt society subjected her to for the crimes of her ancestors...
"Goddammit," Kizelia groaned in pain as she stretched, getting out of bed. Her back was acting up again, scars from a a near-death experience some years back. "Still haven't freaking healed," she grumbled, stumbling into the bathroom and yanked off her shirt to see in the mirror. Three large scars dominated most of her back, a result of being a whipping girl from an abusive ex-girlfriend who found out she was an Abh. Normally, they didn't hurt, but they acted up whenever she slept on her back for too long or she stretched too much.
The street rat groaned again, grabbing some pain medication to dull the senses a bit. She turned up her nose at them; she hated pills of any kind, her Abh arrogance always telling her that pills were for Landers, but the pain was almost unbearable…
She popped two in and drank some water to make them go down easier. "Broken as frick," she cursed, looking at herself in the mirror. A scar ran down the right side of her face and through her eye, an ex-boyfriend causing that. Her natural hair was midnight blue, shoulder-length and wavy. Her eyes were ice blue and weary, so very weary of life. Her pale skin was marked by tattoos, mostly with her left arm having a half sleeve and some smaller ones on her forearm, and another one on her ribs after a reckless dare with another ex-girlfriend. Puberty was very generous to her when she hit her teens, giving her a nice bust and wide hips. Or maybe it cursed her, rather, as she had received unsavory comments before. The most notable trait were her ears. They were almost elf-like, almost like the Nui Abliarsar… but something was off about them, like a chunk was bitten off. There was a v-shaped cut at the ends of her ears, giving them a forked look. As far as Ki knew, her family was the only other one that had differently shaped ears.
Living on this planet was tough for Abh. The star system itself, the Nokturnela Star System, was a border town between United Mankind and the Fek Barker, a territory of the Abh Empire also known as the Barke Kingdom. Because it was a border planet, everything went, the laws of neither the Bar Frybar nor the United Mankind applied, making it rife with crime and other scum. Nokturnela Major was just awful, but she called it her home, because no other planet would ever accept her as one of their own. The slums were underground tunnels, so the air was often stifling. The surface world was almost inhospitable, with a harsh atmosphere, dotted by the few tightly regulated safehouses. It was where the few rich kingpins lived to avoid the disgusting rabble, though not even the lesser gangs could afford that luxury. This planet was also the home territory of the most notorious mafia family in Abh history for centuries, the Dozeryua family.
And she was all alone now; she and her own son were the last living members. She sighed and covered her face in her hands. Ki felt like a real damn failure. She was stuck here, always hiding her real appearance from the Landers who resided on the planet. If there were other Abh that resided here for whatever reason, she wouldn't know. "You're 30 years old, and what did you do in your life? Freaking nothing," she hissed at herself. "You joined the academy when you were 17, made it through the three years, and dropped out at the last second like a pussy."
Her father Rauhiel died 25 years ago in a suspicious circumstance, leaving Ki to the care of his cousin Kokani and Grandpa Debenau. Kokani committed suicide when Ki was 15, thinking no one would ever pick her to be their gene donor. Her grandfather Debenau died in an accident when she was 20, just as she finished her training, and the stress and grief made her drop out of the academy, and the harassment she got over the years from the other cadets made the stress worse. It was a cesspool of death for her, it was all she ever knew.
She snapped back into reality when her baby boy woke up crying. He was about five months old now, and she was as devoted to motherhood as could be, powering through her depression. She put her shirt back on and tended to him. "What's wrong, kiddo?" She picked him up from his crib, rocking him. "Need a change? Or did you just wanna see your mom?" She smiled a bit. Debenau was one of the few joys in her life, a loving combo of her and a Lander boyfriend she recently (and amicably, luckily) broke up with. He was named after Ki's grandpa, of course. He fussed when she picked him up, and his belly growled a bit, signaling his hunger. "You need to eat up!" Ki took him to the kitchen, where they ate in relative peace, as peaceful as could be when he loved to mess around with his food, having flung mushed fruit at Ki many times before.
She liked how expressive he was, though. It was just how babies were like, so she was always patient with him during meals. "Hehe," she grinned, kissing him on the forehead, then she sighed. The thought of him growing up and going to the Labule, the Abh military forces, made her anxious. "Dunno what I'm gonna do when you'll go to the academy, kiddo. I wanna keep you safe, but…" she didn't finish that thought, she didn't want to. "You and me, we gotta stick together, buddy," she grabbed the leftovers of a whiskey bottle and chugged it down. "Well, okay. Your dad can stay around, too," she giggled. "He's one of the few good people on this stinking planet."
Debenau still giggled the day away and she called Gordon, his father, up to help him babysit while she was in the tattoo parlor for the day. "Yo, Gordie? Off today? Cool, mind babysitting Debenau for a bit? Neat, thanks."
Surprisingly, Nokturnela Major was pretty stable in terms of territory. It was usually solidly in the border, even with the war raging on. The one good thing about being in close proximity to the United Mankind was that she knew the enemy's language, being fairly proficient in Rikpal as a result of getting lots of war news from shady soldiers stopping by the planet.
Maybe I should come back to the Labule, she thought, scrunching up her face at the idea. She hated her time in the academy, and she doubted they'd take dropouts kindly. Not to mention she'd rather live to be with her son instead of fighting for some empress she didn't care for and actually sometimes even despised, and possibly die like some expendable soldier.
Then again, she'd never get out of this situation if she didn't do something to prove her worth to the Abriels. The imperial family never forgot, and they never forgave. She looked at Debenau and put it into perspective. If not for her, then she'd do it for him so he wouldn't have to be scared of others.
Someone knocked on the door, and Ki knew it was Gordon by the way he knocked. She picked Debenau up and made her way down through the labyrinthine house, full of twists and turns and fake entrances so the neighbors would never know. She came up to the fake door and knocked back in a certain way, letting Gordon know to go down through the manhole cover, one of the three real entrances to the house amongst ten or so fake entrances. The Dozeryua family was very clever in thinking of that, as it threw off law enforcement for centuries. Gordon hopped down into the manhole, covering up the entrance as he went.
He was a straw-haired man with pale skin, the most typical Lander one could be, a bit rough around the edges, but generally cordial. He owned a restaurant and bar not too far from here, and he had a strict rule about not starting a bar fight in the establishment. "'Ello, wee squirt!" he greeted Debenau happily. "Been a good boy for Mummy?"
"Hehe, yep, he's getting bigger by the day!" Ki smooched the baby. She didn't like how attached Gordon was being, so she broke up with him. He seemed to take it well, at least, and it wasn't hard to understand why Ki would prefer to stay aloof to romantic partners, after having been burned so many times by abusive partners, both men and women. "I'm gonna head out to the tattoo parlor in a bit. I just need to… fix up my hair," she sighed.
Working up a disguise was one of her talents, it was essential for her if she wanted to live here. It was how her ancestors managed to get by here, and their skills were passed on to the next generation. There wasn't anything quite like the Dozeryua's ability, as they did their disguises by hand instead of using stealth technology, bypassing many detectors. Ki had to dye her hair every few weeks, as the color washed off relatively easily in the shower, and she had to leave her Alpha behind at home. It made life a bit more difficult for her, but it was either out herself as an Abh and possibly die, or pretend to be a Lander and make it through another day.
"Another day, another dye job," she muttered as she got to work. She could have easily lied and said her blue hair was dyed, but… it was surprisingly easy to tell if blue hair was Abh hair or dyed. Then again, the reverse was true, it was easy to tell if Abh hair was dyed, so she was very thorough dyeing her hair. She considered a more permanent solution by way of bleaching her hair and then dying it, but she was a bit scared. It'd be like erasing part of her identity…
Then again, she never had much of an identity. She spent so much time with the Landers, she considered herself one of them. She knew Baronh flawlessly, as even Landers fluent in the language made mistakes sometimes, and she had that unmistakable frosh she hid well, but that was the most she had in terms of Abh culture. She didn't know what it's like to be an Abh, only to be someone reviled by both Landers and other Abh. She looked at herself in the mirror when the deed was done. Brown hair, just like so many of her cousins picked, and not a hint of blue. "Looking good," she joked to herself as she changed out from her sleepwear to her daily wear. She often said she was punk, but her outfit screamed hooker, as she donned a crop top and booty shorts. All in all, she had the best parts of her parents… and the worst parts, too. She certainly resembled her mother a bit more, having only her father's ears, eye color, and hair color.
She had the fierce loyalty and protectiveness, she had initiative and stubbornness, she had good looks, all weighed down by her asshole personality and alcoholism and depression. She had no commitment to any one partner for long and she was notorious for sleeping around. She could be very savage when provoked, too… and it didn't take much to piss her off. "And the final touch…" she grabbed a white bandana and folded it up into a headband, tying it tightly around her head. Sometimes she hated that headband. Back then, the other cadets often yanked on the ends when she wasn't looking, pulling her backwards by surprise… but she had to hide her frosh somehow. They teased her about it, but she was just so used to having it on before arriving at the academy due to her living situation. In the end, they managed to bully her out of that for the remainder of her academic career, and she reverted back to wearing it once again when she came back home. She came out of the bathroom and saw Gordon playing with Debenau, rattling a toy in front of his face. "Hey, Gordie? Mind if we just chat for a second before I go?"
"Aye, sure thing, Ki. What about?"
"...I'm thinking of going back to the military," she sighed. "I hate the idea as much as you do, but how am I gonna get out of this hellhole without doing illegal things and sneaking into another planet? I just need to hang on to a future where the kiddo doesn't have to worry about being bullied to the ground."
"I don't think so, lassie. Debenau needs 'is mummy," Gordon shook his head. "But it's up to you in the end." He'd also miss her terribly if she fell in battle, but he didn't voice that. "Do they even take back dropouts?"
"Not sure, I guess I'll have to see," she kissed Debenau on the forehead. "Mommy's going to work, be good for Daddy, okay?" she smiled at her baby, putting on a vest and boots before she left. "See ya 'round, Gordie."
She walked about with ease, at least compared to a typical Abh. Most Abh were wobbly on land, as their bodies were made for space and zero gravity conditions. Ki had the advantage of adapting to it, though she could never really shake off the uneasy feeling that was just natural to every Abh on a ground setting. "Hey, sexy mama!" some thug catcalled her.
"Piss off!" she growled back in response. There were always a few rumors here and there that she was an Abh and that was why she was impossibly exquisite for anyone living here. She always denied them, of course, because one of two things would happen if the truth came out: they'd either kill her in cold blood, or one of them would try and kidnap her to be their slave, and she had no intention of being anyone's servant for any reason. It wasn't anything new, though; she got such creepy comments ever since she was 17. It was like she was a disgraced queen in hiding, scared of her own subjects.
Finally, her tattoo parlor. She wasn't ever sure if being a cadet counted as serving in the military, but she proudly considered herself a merchant, selling her artistry as a service. One supposed some traditions die hard. She somewhat followed the three important stages of life for an Abh, after all. It was a bit of a shabby place, but it was one of the few safe havens in her particular area, and it was decently clean and bright compared to everything else on the planet. She always told would-be customers to buzz off if they were incorrigible and misogynist, or, if they demanded a tattoo constantly, intentionally ruin it for them, but she was very talented and could be very friendly if clients were respectful.
"Another day, another tattoo," she told herself, flipping on the lights and getting ready. Second only to her son, art was the other thing that brought her much joy, a passion that was fostered by her emotions and supportive family members. For as long as she remembered, she always had a knack for artistic endeavors, and she found it was rather therapeutic. The only issue was that her addictions got in the way, and sometimes her depression left her feeling tired… but it was the only thing really keeping her mental state together.
She flicked on the sign to "open", and right on cue, her first client of the day came around. "Wassup, man?" she shook his hand and pulled him close, and he patted her on the back.
"Eyy, homegirl! How ya been?" the dark skinned Lander man grinned.
"Hehe, nothing much, same crap every day on this hellhole, DeAndre," Ki chuckled. "So we're here to get that tat colored in, yeah?" she pointed at one of her more recent works, a flaming skull on his arm.
"Hell yeah! Surprise me with the colors, Ki! Ya know what to do, you the best artist on this side of the turf!" he fist bumped her. Like many others, DeAndre didn't know Ki was one of them… though he never seemed to say really negative things towards the Abh, but Ki was always wary. Gordon, on the flip side, knew Ki was an Abh, but he sympathized with her, being even more than happy to have a child with her when they were still a couple, knowing that their son would be an Abh. He took great care of not spilling the beans to anyone else.
Kizelia just wasn't sure if she could trust even her most amicable clients. No, not just unsure, she straight up couldn't, not unless she knew what they'd think of the Abh. "Alrighty, I think you're gonna really dig this, man!" she fist bumped back. "So anything new?" she intensely washed her hands, often going up to the elbow, despite that being overkill.
"I heard a pretty wack rumor goin' 'round, an' definitely not about ya this time!" DeAndre peeped. "Still about an Abh or somethin' or other, though," he shook his head, his dreadlocks moving along in tandem.
"Oh, really?" that admittedly piqued her curiosity a bit.
"A few, actually. Heard that the big crime lord in town has an Abh in his hands, a real pretty lady."
That just bristled Ki up, she hated the idea of any Abh being treated like a subhuman. She kept her cool, though. "Freaking aliens, eh, Dee? How'd she get on this stinking planet? Must have been a real dumbass to land here," she snorted a bit.
"I dunno, that's just a rumor. Probably fake as hell, fo' all I know, an' we both know how the big mafiosas love attention," he shrugged as Ki got out some ink. "Other words on the street say the Abh are gonna try an' take over, I think they're trynna get this place under control."
The tattoo artist put on some rubber gloves and scoffed again, this was getting ridiculous to her. "Yeah, right. If the United Mankind couldn't fix this up, how're the space elves gonna do that?" Ki grimaced a bit as she got started on his arm. She had a point, though. Not even the law enforcers from United Mankind could stop the anarchy of Nokturnela Major, despite the support to the nation.
"I kinda hope the Abh are gonna try," DeAndre admitted. Honestly, he had mixed feelings about the Abh. He was confident they were miracle workers, bettering even a trash planet like this into something bearable, but on the other hand… "I just don't want them messin' things up too much, but this planet's just a warzone every day fo' us."
Now that was surprising to Ki, and she hesitated a bit. "Be careful saying that, they're gonna beat you down if they heard that, Dee," she half-joked, half-warned.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. But I think if they saw how bad this place is, they gotta step in, ya hear?"
Ki sighed. This was it now. If he was even a little bit sympathetic to her situation, and since he knew a way off this planet... maybe he'd help. "I kinda doubt that. Trust me, I know so. They see a thug, they'll either leave you alone to fend for yourself or harass you into dropping out of the military."
"Oh, really, now?"
"What if I told you that all those rumors of me being an Abh were true?" Silence. DeAndre was, for lack of a better word, shocked. Not in a bad way, or a good way, but it certainly felt that the illusion of Ki being a normal human was shattered.
He felt a bit hurt, yes, but not as much as he thought. "That explains yo' pretty looks," he just chuckled. "But really, how…? Ya don't look like an Abh..."
"Just swing by my place later tonight, I'll explain my story. Just make sure you go alone, okay? But trust me… I'm a real Abh," and to prove it, she lifted off the bandana, revealing her frosh… an undeniably Abh feature.
"And you been livin' like this for yo' whole life? Props to ya, Ki. I doubt I could live like that every day, just hidin' my real self."
"Eh. You just learn to adapt and survive. I just hope I'll live long enough to teach my baby the same skills my grandpa did."
Next chapter:
"Dee, ya bet your ass that propaganda is wrong as hell about the Abh. I definitely know one thing… we Abh wanna have a good relationship with our kiddos, it's the most important relationship in our culture. I'm sure as hell that my kid makes me happy when I see him. Question all the propaganda you see from here on out, man. Just don't fight the power, because they'll probably kill ya."
