AU: Bar Crawl

[last_kallig]

After the events at the Foundry, Ibani felt that both she and Ben desperately needed some R+R. There was much research and questioning of her various contacts, smugglers, pirates, spies, and other such folk for good places to drink and eat on Nar Shaddaa.

She has a list! Although her first plan is to ask Ben where HIS favorite places on Nar Shaddaa were and see if any of them exist in her when, because you never know.

In the interests of blending in, Ibani has gone for the smuggler/pirate look in brown and bright emerald synthleather with a vibroblade strapped on one hip. (She has her lightsabers too, of course, but those are more hidden.)

Comments

[last_kallig]

"Move!" Ibani hisses at the two criminals, then she 'helps' them down with the Force. "But DON'T run." She's not sure anyone would be able to hold them back from chasing running prey, after all!

The criminals are out the door and gone as quickly as they dare and Ibani is standing at the door herself. Seeing Ben like this, with such a determined edge, such strength in the Force and such control is kind of hot hitting all kinds of cultural buttons that Ibani's only partially aware of having.

[acertainpov]

The warehouse has a sense of calm growing in it, right at the edge of sensation. The hounds are now in a pack together, one of them whimpering, another scrambling at the floor, and yet another just placid, head tilted and eyes up at Ben like an Akk dog.

The struggle has eased since it was only him and them at risk, although there's still a conflict of wills.

He approaches them carefully, and they back away, towards the cages at the back.

Feeling Ibani's presence in the door he speaks gently.

"Any chance you can find something to fix those doors?"

He doesn't like it, the cages are too small. But he doesn't have any other ideas.

[last_kallig]

"I can fix them, I think, looks like only one pin gave way. And Force lightning can spot weld in a pinch."*

Ibani gets to work straightening bent metal and welding it in place with Force lightning. She IS good at fine control.

When the cages are done, she steps back. "I'll place a holocall, I think I know someone who can take them home to Korriban, unless you have another idea?"


(OOC: Using force lightning to spot weld is something I've seen in fanfic, I think by fialleril on Tumblr?)

[acertainpov]

One by one, they back into their cages, some of them fighting more than others. But once they are all in to some extent, Ben crouches down by the pack leader. He releases his control but not his influence, leaving a hound in turns whining and snarling, worrying the cage door in its frustration.

Against all common sense he places a hand on the bars. Against all rules of universe, he doesn't lose that hand.

"What will happen to them on Korriban?"

They're just dogs, under it all. Bred to be violent and corrupted by the Dark Side, but there's still an animal under there.

[last_kallig]

"They'll be released into the wild," Ibani replies. "I'd ask my contact not to put them anywhere near the Sith Academy, it's a dangerous location for a drop off and the Tu'Kata there get accustomed to eating people quite quickly."

She smiles softly at Ben placing his hand against the bars. She's never met anyone else with so much compassion.

[acertainpov]

After a moment, Ben stands, pulling his hand back while keeping his eyes on the hound. As one final mercy, he nods again and four of the five settle down quietly, heads on their paws for what looks like might become a nap. The fifth, too strong willed, paces quietly, growling.

"Do let me know how they get on," he says, and steps back, into her shoulder with a tired rub of his head. "And maybe find somewhere actually quiet this time?"

It was hard work!

[last_kallig]

"I'll make a call," Ibani says quietly. "And I know somewhere that will definitely be quiet, if you're up for an air taxi ride."

Ibani sends a text message to a contact, calling in a favor. She wraps an arm around Ben, running her fingers through his hair in an attempt to ease the tiredness.

She smiles. "Might as well make use of that Sky Palace I bought as part of my cover here. Got it at a discount after one owner took the wrong Sith artifact in as an art piece and it killed them and the next three buyers. It got a reputation for being haunted."

[acertainpov]

He reciprocates with an arm around her, gently resting his hand on her shoulder and shoots her a small smile.

"Is it haunted?" That doesn't sound quiet!

[last_kallig]

Ibani chuckles. "No, although given the psychotropic effects of that artifact I'm not surprised people thought so. I got rid of the artifact as soon as I bought the place. It's still in a containment vault on Dromund Kaas, since my Sphere wasn't sure what would happen if anyone destroyed the damn thing."

They make their way to an air taxi and Ibani inputs their destination. "I kept the outer rooms, the ones meant for outsiders to see, the way they were. DEFINITELY not my style, but having people see what they expect to see is...useful."

Like most things in her life, a deception hiding the truth beneath, a bodyguard of lies.

The Sky palace floats above Nar Shaddaa, far enough away that there is as close to quiet as it ever gets on this moon. The outer rooms are, well, gaudy. Complicated patterns and entirely too much gilding, meant to flaunt wealth at the expense of any taste.

[acertainpov]

"What a perfect representation of the period and style," Ben says, with only the slightest hint of mocking irony in his otherwise pefectly sincere tone.

He turns circles as he walks through, determined to get every angle of the terrible tastelessness in his sights.

[last_kallig]

"It is, isn't it?" Ibani replies, her hint of mocking irony matching his as she leans into him. Delicate carved patterns that would each be fine individually have been crammed together without regard to period, culture, or context, then entombed alive with gilding or stone inlay

The furniture is both ornate and hideously uncomfortable looking. Delicate looking spiraled Nautolan couches with an aquatic theme cheek to jowl with bluntly square heavy wooden Alderranian tables carved with nerf herders and their nerfs.

Most of the 'art' is urns carved to resemble various nude species of many sexes. Ibani feels that most of the urns look like they are trying to flee as opposed to anything approaching erotic.

There are entirely too many crystal chandeliers illuminating what's below, making the gilding actually uncomfortable to look at from certain angles thanks to the reflected light.

It is a perfect storm of hideous conspicuous consumption.

[acertainpov]

"I can see how you could turn to the Dark Side just standing here," Ben adds. "I absolutely hate it."

[last_kallig]

Ibani laughs, "Oh, I agree. It's an amazing tool for putting people on edge though. I let them cool their heels out here for ten minutes and they're in such a rush to leave that they'll agree to nearly anything."

She inputs a code and they pass through into the private areas. This, THIS looks almost exactly like Ibani's room in Milliways. Warm earth colors, simple lines, only necessary, comfortable, furniture. "This is my work. I was here for quite a while after Thanaton killed me, as I needed to keep my head down."

[acertainpov]

"This is more like it," Ben says, drawing her closer to him affectionately. "More like you."

[last_kallig]

Ibani is happy to be drawn close. "I'm glad you like it," she says sincerely. "Let me grab some things from the kitchen and I'll show you the garden."

Ibani assembles something like a picnic basket using the fruit basket on the kitchen counter: fruit, cheese, sparkling wine and chocolates.

"It's a copy of one my apprentices, Corrin and Kaal, had at their home on Ziost, growing up." The loss of her apprentices will always hurt a little, and now their home planet is gone too, a lifeless husk of ash thanks to the former Sith Emperor.

She sets the basket down and takes off her boots and socks. "I like to go barefoot in the garden," she explains.

[acertainpov]

Ben leans against a wall in order to follow suit and take off his own boots - the knee length red ones he's always been so fond of - and flexes his toes in the air.

"A luxury I don't often afford myself," he observes.

(Sand gets everywhere.)

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "I think I know why." She has been to Tatooine, after all!

She flexes her own toes, then leads him through the door into the garden. It's made to look like a natural space, like a meadow with a stream running through it, a tree distantly like a Willow providing an ideal place to sit and observe near the stream. Wildflowers bloom amid the grasses, and water plants grow in between the rocks of the stream. There are no paths, only soft grasses underfoot.

"These are all plants native to Ziost," she explains. "This style is fairly popular there, one that aims to create as natural looking, as wild, a space as possible."

"Was popular," she corrects herself after a moment. "There are other places like this, gardens made by people who took a piece of Ziost with them when they left. I don't know if any of these remain, in your time."

The lighting is made to feel like a single sun, beginning to set.

[acertainpov]

"I don't know if I'd know to recognise them, if I even had the chance to see them."

Let's be honest, even as 'peacekeepers' Jedi didn't often get to see private gardens. He walks in the grass slowly, savouring the feeling of life against his skin, and one hand on her shoulder contantly.

So much of the galaxy has been lost. He wonders if any part of Mandalore exists like this in his own time, preserved despite the wars that destroyed it.

[last_kallig]

"I could tell you about these, but none of them would grow where you are, I know that."

She's glad that he's enjoying himself and she moves slowly, letting him savor the life against his skin. Their eventual destination is beneath the tree, and she invites him to sit with her.

"I like to meditate here," she confides. "It's peaceful, quiet." Ibani doesn't get much peace or quiet outside of Milliways.

[acertainpov]

"It's a good spot for that."

It beats meditating on Tatooine, but then Ben gets too much peace and quiet these days, it's nice to have peace and quiet in decent humidity.

He sits, folding his legs in front of him, and removes his hat to expose his hair to the climate controlled air.

"So what have you salvaged from the kitchen?"

[last_kallig]

She runs her fingers through his hair once the hat is removed.

"Fruit, cheese, chocolate, and a little wine," Ibani explains.

She removes the glasses and the wine first, then looks up at him, almost shy.

"May I kiss you?" she asks, flushing slightly.

[acertainpov]

He turns his attention away from the hamper and the wine, and gives it fully to her, one hand coming up like hers to lose fingers in the hair at the back of her head.

"Please do," he says, with a warm smile.

[last_kallig]

She leans in to kiss him, so gentle and so careful, as if she might break him by accident. It's new and wonderful and like flying an unfamiliar starfighter without instruments. Feedback from Ben of some kind would be very helpful.

She's more careful in the Force this time, more restrained. The love-desire-pleasure not a rising sea but the careful warmth of a banked fire.

[acertainpov]

Ben closes his eyes, and at first just lets his physical response speak for him, responsive and tender as he shifts just fto make sitting more comfortable for both of them, one hand on the grass next to her hips, the other gently nestling in her hair.

At the edges though, he opens up, lets part of his being leak out into the force: like tha sound of an ocean from far away, distant and indistinct, but the sense of something vast and deep.

[last_kallig]

Ibani shifts toward him, moving her own body to make this easier. The hand that isn't in his hair moves toward his shoulder. She's reading his physical responses, learning how to make this better for both of them, still as gentle and as tender as she can be.

Feeling the edge of him in the Force makes something in her relax that she didn't realize was tight. She'd gladly bask in his force presence like a Loth-cat in the sun, if he'd let her.