Bothawui
The District of Drev'starn


The armored limousine speeder moved along in a slow procession down the Boulevard of Liberation, anchoring the center of the line. Ahead and behind were similar transports with dignitaries, themselves flanked by Senatorial Guard on the runners. The crowd along either side of the boulevard was large, but not up to expectations. The rain, it seemed, had seen to that. Grey skies above kept a sustained light shower over the city, prompting those on the street to either huddle beneath shared umbrellas, find a convenient awning, or take the elements as they were in stoic misery.

Taataani's bright red dress seemed out of place, a casualty of suddenly fickle weather. But the die was cast, and there was nothing gained in fretting the wardrobe. Instead, the First Minister Elect spent the last few minutes of the approach to the Capitol poring over a datapad. Eyeglasses that her vanity eschewed but reality demanded perched at the bridge of her broad nose as she thumbed through paragraph after paragraph of her speech. Even at this late moment, she was adding lines here, removing word choice there. It was close to being as she liked, but not there yet. The Senator from Keppaa Brens took a hurried drink from a bottle of nutritive supplement, ignoring its bland and chalky flavor. She'd been too full of nervous energy to dare attempt eating breakfast, but now it was nearing midday, and she needed something in her stomach to sustain her through a day that promised to be long on activity, with little time to find proper food.

The sounds of engines filled the air above, and for a brief moment the First Minister Elect turned her attention away from her speech to see a formation of X-wings streak above, leaving behind colorful decorative contrails of red and white smoke that lingered for a few minutes before being subsumed by the rainclouds. The brief showings of martial pomp helped to instill the right sort of gravity, and for a moment Taataani was at rest, considering the whole of the task before her. It struck her then that most people only learned of their life's defining moment after it passed them by. She was very likely driving up to slowly meet hers by motorcade. It created a strange feeling of awe, elation, terror, solemnity, and resolve, somehow all rolled into one single grandly-ambivalent experience. Taataani took her eyes away from the sky above, focusing on the people that slowly passed by. Though they couldn't see her through the tint of the windscreens, she could certainly see them. Young and old, rich and poor, Human and Bith and Iridonian and Twi'lek and Cizeri. A crush of existences united seemingly only in difference.

"Madam Senator, it's time."

The procession at last made the expected bank to the left, reaching the end of the Boulevard of Liberation. In the enormous cul-de-sac dominated by a blue marble starbird fountain, the train of speeders came to a stop, ensuring that the limousine at the center of the line had a direct path ahead to the climbing steps to the Capitol. Beneath the austere columns of the Senate House, Taataani could already see Salem Ave waiting on a dais, just beyond the reach of rain.

The door opened.