tritanopia | The Mandalorian

thirty-one

The ship's hot water was starting to run out. Likely due to the fact that Fae had been standing in the shower for over half an hour. It hadn't quite gone cold yet, but it was undeniably heading that way in the next couple of minutes. She wasn't even actually showering, simply just standing there with her orange curls, now copper from the water, sticking to her neck and forehead as her fingers lightly danced across the scarred slashes now marring her face.

Unlike most teenagers, Fae wasn't actually an insecure person. But this trait did not stem from overconfidence -- since she didn't have any of that, either. It was entirely due to the fact that not many beauty standards exist when you grow up on an Imperial base, so Fae never learnt to loath aspects of herself she otherwise would have. The fact that her stomach was slightly soft instead of toned, and her thighs touched not only didn't matter to her, but it had honestly never even occurred to her. Her standards for herself were solely based on strength, both mental and physical, since that was what she was trained and conditioned to care about, instead. Fae didn't care about having imperfect skin as long as she could run faster than anyone chasing her.

And so, with all that being said, Fae couldn't wrap her head around why she was so inconsolably upset about the three light pink scars cutting across her lips. Based on her track record of not caring less about the way she looked, it was extremely out of character for her to suddenly be distraught about this. The brand new scar on her side didn't even phase her, either. Granted, there were several other smaller, less noticeable, marks to go along with those on her face -- but it was the main three which was what broke the girl down into the state she was in.

One of them was somewhat small in comparison to the other two; running diagonally from underneath her right nostril down to the left, slicing her Cupid's bow in half as it passed over her lips, disappearing slightly underneath the curve of her chin.

Another was more severe, starting from approximately an inch up one of her cheeks and stretching all the way to the other, creating a menacing almost-smile as the two ends of her lips appeared to have extended where the knife had dragged through them.

The third was just as offensive. It was thin, but long, and traveled from the left side of her lower lip to the right side of her chin, crossing over the first mark, and then proceeded to trail half way up her jawline. The broken skin was so perfectly along the bone that Fae was convinced Xi'an had done that one specific movement on purpose -- as managing it simply by pure coincidence was far too unbelievable.

She hadn't actually properly looked at them apart from the first time, when Mando had handed Fae the mirror. But that was almost an hour ago, and she had only actually observed her own reflection for a minute or two before she grew sick of it, and forced the man to take the mirror back.

Goosbumps freckled across her skin as the water officially converted to ice cold. The blood which had previously still remained painted to her like a gory second skin had long ago washed away where Fae had relentlessly scrubbed at it with her fingernails. The refreshing temperature change was probably for the best, as the heat combined with her weak state was leading her down the road of passing out. Five days of no nutrients had slimmed down the already deprived girl even further, which was the last thing she needed -- her collarbones and ribs pushing against her paper thin skin in a way they never had before. Even Mando had noticed and grown concerned over the days; since she began travelling with him, her weight had risen to a healthier amount compared to when he had found her, but now all of that had been completely undone in such a short amount of time. Her severe paleness and concave cheeks did nothing to help hide the damage present on her face.

When Fae eventually ripped herself away from the shower, she half heartedly dried her hair with a towel before wrapping it around herself, beads of water still dripping down her neck.