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

[acertainpov]

Ben, having both seen the head tilt and senses her reaction, hasn't touched his tea, but is sitting back in his chair, tilting it on the back legs slightly, an expression of serene interest on his face.

The server herself is backing away, hands raised at the wrist, holding them at waist level. "Drugged?" she asks, shocked.

It's a good act, but it's a lie. Ben can already see the two people at the counter - a Weequay who looks like a customer and a human behind the counter - making eye contact with each other.

"Come now," he says to Ibani, in the soothing tone of someone used to talking to an unstable partner, "don't be rude to the nice lady."

He is also acting, he's just better at it than the lady in question.

[last_kallig]

Ibani can taste the lie herself, and catches the eye contact between the human and the Weequay.

She trusts Ben with more than her life, so it's easy to go along with whatever he has planned.

"Oh, fine," Ibani huffs, sliding into the role of unstable partner. "You probably just let it steep too long or something," she says to the server.

[acertainpov]

He gives her the most patronising smile he can, leans forward and pats her hand while he takes the tea away from her.

"Why don't you just try some of the sweets," he says, "while she fetches us some fresh tea?"

He turns the smile on the server. "I'm so sorry, my wife is really particular about tea."

[last_kallig]

If she didn't know he was acting, Ben would be in so much trouble for that patronizing smile.

The sweets are unaltered, and quite good actually! Ibani tries one.

"Oh, I understand completely," the server replies. Her relief palpable in the Force that she hasn't been caught! "Let me just bring you a fresh pot."

Eyes are off them for a little while. "The person who recommended this place to me mentioned that it had changed hands since the last time they were here, they must still be getting settled in."

[acertainpov]

"And you don't recognise the two by the counter?" Just to be sure. He follows her lead and picks up a small cake to try.

"Could be slavers, but tourists wouldn't pop into a place this out of the way and unsignposted. Not enough for a sustainable trade. Could just be a standard way of getting rid of uninvited guests at a members only club."

"But if this place was recommended to you, someone knew you were coming."

[last_kallig]

Ibani shakes her head when he asks if she recognizes the two by the counter

"Don't think this was aimed at me specifically." Ibani grins teasingly. "The person who gave this recommendation has never seen this lovely face." They could be drugging any human female who comes in, but that could be an expensive proposition.

"Not enough Azide in the tea pot to put two adults fully out either," she adds. "Amateur maybe, or trying to look like one."

[acertainpov]

"Or just seeing who'd notice," he says lightly, taking one more bite of his cake.

"But I don't know why you have to always make such a scene."

This last sentence is probably because their fresh pot of tes is on its way, being brought by the human chef - male, older than the server from before, and a dangerous smile on his face. But still a smile.

[last_kallig]

"I do not always make a scene," Ibani replies, pouting.

The chef sets the tea down. "I'm so sorry about the tea earlier," the chef begins with his dangerous smile. "I hope this one will be more to your liking."

Ibani pokes the tea with the Force and nods to the chef. "It had better," she grumbles.

Strictly speaking, Ibani isn't supposed to know the hand signs that the Jedi use to communicate secretly. She's just hoping the Order is hidebound enough that they haven't changed the signs much in thousands of years.

What she signs is 'death for you, not me'. Ibani sips the tea while the chef hovers. Drains the entire cup, in fact. It's good tea! Also, laced with enough toxins to kill at least four normal humans.

The dangerous smile on the chef's face doesn't fade but there is a flicker of uncertainty in the Force from him. It should have worked by now.

[acertainpov]

"Oh no," Ben says, his full attention on the chef to distract from hand signals, "we're sorry. It's just so hard to find good Deychin tea in this sector. We didn't mean to make a fuss."

The chef nods, his uncertainty growing. "I'd like to know what you think of it," he says, pushing the cup towards Ben.

Ben shakes his head, reaching for another cake. "I'm really more of a sweet person myself. Why don't you join us?"

The weequay is now straight up watching this. She probably doesn't even know she's doing it, but she's also resting her hand on the blaster at her hip.

[last_kallig]

"It's true, he's like a bottomless pit for sweets," Ibani replies. "Doesn't care for tea much at all, but he puts up with my little habits."

Ibani pushes a chair behind the chef with one foot. "You might as well sit down or you'll never get any peace, he's stubborn when he's made up his mind on something."

She leans back in her chair and smirks. "How he caught me, as a matter of fact. Don't think you're quite old enough to hear that story though." .

Hopefully, there are enough distractions that no one will notice what she's REALLY doing as she pours herself another cup of tea. The tea in the pot and the other cup will be poison free shortly, albeit rather hotter than they should be thanks to various chemical reactions going on.

Ibani is terribly aware of everything in the Bar, especially the Weequay with her hand on her blaster. It would not be in the best interest of her health to draw that blaster, not when Ibani has people to protect.

The chef sits, his body language stiff and uncomfortable. "You weren't this friendly last time you were here," he says at last, his gaze challenging.

Ibani gives the chef a WTF expression. She's never been here before in her entire life!

[acertainpov]

Ben makes his glance over that the weequay visible and reassuring. He meets her eye in fact, smiles and shakes his head. No need for that, he promises. Then he turns a raised eyebrow on the human.

"What happened last time we were here?" he asks, with the slightest nudge in the Force - no hand waves, just a gentle push towards telling them the truth.

The chef swallows nervously. "You threatened us. Said if we didn't pay you regularly you'd come back and destroy the place. We're already paying the Hutts, we can't afford to pay you too."

[last_kallig]

"I would definitely remember doing that," Ibani replies, "and I don't."

The Weequay relaxes, and the chef and the waitress do too, if slightly less than the armed Weequay.

"Can't have people leeching off our reputation, that's how you make a living in this business."

Which is both true and likely a more believable reason for potential interference than the goodness of their hearts.

"You have any information about our doppelgangers?"

"No names," the chef replies. "But I overheard you," he says looking at Ben, "er, sorry, HIM, say something about a safehouse near the palace of Jarlo the Hutt."

[acertainpov]

Ben catches Ibani's eye and rolls his when she obviously decides they're going off to catch a protection racket instead of their continued fun times. Maybe he just wanted a drink?

"And has he been bothering all the businesses in the area?"

"I don't know," the chef says quickly. "I think... maybe? Why would they single us out?"

A few reasons, Ben reflects, but none that he'd keep from them. He helps himself to one last cake, and looks back to Ibani.

"Have you had enough tea, my dear?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani gives Ben her very best innocent expression at the eye roll!

"Yes, I believe I have, dear," Ibani replies, smiling fondly at him.

"I'd incinerate anything that was in contact with the tea, if I were you," she tells the chef as she stands up. "That particular blend can linger in surfaces and give you nasty surprises down the line."

"How aren't you...?" He begins.

"Trade secret," Ibani replies, winking.

She takes Ben's hand again and leads them out the door.

"The racket can wait, if you'd rather," Ibani replies. "I could tackle them by myself another day. Although it sounds like it IS on the way to where I was headed next in any case."

[acertainpov]

"Another day could bring them back here," Ben says, and sighs. "No, I suppose we should put our quiet evening on hold for an hour or two. And here's me with only a crude blaster."

[last_kallig]

Ibani squeezes Ben's hand gently.

"Crude perhaps, but effective in their way," Ibani replies. "Although.." She pauses for a moment, reaching out to the Kyber crystals in her lightsabers. "One of my lightsabers would let you use her for a time, if it comes to that."

She grins. "Possibly my feelings for you are rubbing off on them."

"Interesting choice you made for my cover," she remarks, tone slightly teasing. Yes, she noticed that Ben chose 'wife' as opposed to anything else as a cover relationship.

[acertainpov]

Ben, no stranger to using other people's lightsabers, nevertheless declines her offer, for now.

"Let's hope it won't come to that," he says, before shooting her a sly grin, and lifting his hand, of which Ibani has yet to let go.

"Thought it might be more believable."

[last_kallig]

"Asking nicely might work, or asking not so nicely," she says when he says that he hopes it won't come to that.

She doesn't answer his sly grin with a sly grin of her own, but her grin is slightly mischievous. "Hm. True. Although on this moon I expect most anything would be believable. Partner, Friend, Lover, Mistress.."

As they near the location of the expected safehouse, Ibani stops suddenly, as something familiar just brushes against her senses in the Force. Predatory animals, but not entirely natural ones. These were modified by the Sith in ancient times with the Dark Side.

"What in the Force are Tu'Kata, Sith Hounds,doing here?"

[acertainpov]

Ben stops with her, looking at her face curiously before turning slightly away, letting his focus reach out into the Force to see what she sensed.

What he finds has him tilting his head, a curious expression corrsing his face before he turns back to her.

That's new.

(Well, to him.)

[last_kallig]

The Tu'kata are predators, their ancestors modified by the Dark Side. They are aggression and predation and frustration that the prey is out of reach to his senses. They feed on the Dark Side as much as flesh.

"They're unnaturally aggressive predators, pack hunters" Ibani explains, letting go of Ben's hands and speeding up into a jog toward where she can feel the Tu'Kata. "Modified by the ancient Sith with the Dark Side to make them better guard beasts. I tried to calm one with the Force once when I was eleven, came within a hair's breadth of dying for my trouble."

The presence is coming from a warehouse and when Ibani kicks the door open, two humans are huddled up on some shelving while five Tu'kata snarl and leap up at them from the ground. There are five empty cages, doors torn off, that suggest how the creatures GOT here, at least.

Funny, there is a distant resemblance to Obi-Wan and Ibani in the two humans, possibly the extortion racket they were looking for?

[acertainpov]

Ben jogs up behind her, stops at her shoulder and peers over before shaking his head sadly.

"They look nothing like us," he complains softly. "Look at that beard."

He rubs his own thoughtfully, but doesn't draw his blaster. Instead he walks calmly into the warehouse, giving some space between him and Ibani, so when the Hounds turn, attracted by the sound of the door being kicked open, they can choose between two targets.

"So what does work with them?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani makes a face. "Definitely not, far too scruffy to look anything like you. And as for HER," Ibani eyes the woman. "It's mostly the outfit we've got in common."

"Calming them might work if you put more oomph in it," she says as the hounds approach. "Was never my strong suit and I was just eleven at the time."

"Otherwise, well, stabbing or blasters are probably our best bets."

[acertainpov]

"Oomph," he mutters, as if the careful blancing act required to communicate with living organisms and overcome forced and deeply engrained instincts was a matter of oomph.

"You go and talk to our impersonators, then. Stay out of their way."

And she's going to have to move fast, because one of the Tuk'ata has broken into a run, beginning to charge them, and Ben isn't moving.

[last_kallig]

Ibani grins at his muttering and leaps up onto the shelving. A normal human wouldn't be able to make that kind of jump, but the Force can be useful like that.

"Who the flark are you?" the woman demands of Ibani. "I could be asking you the same question. I don't appreciate people using my and my husband's reputation to run a protection racket."

There are more Tu'kata after the first, intent on reaching the only readily available prey.

[acertainpov]

He's fairly obvious prey as well, standing where he is as they charge, one hand towards them, and closes his eyes.

He's never sensed this much Dark Side in a non-sentient being. Animals are creatures of emotion and instinct, and he's senses fear before, but this level of hate...

He keeps his eyes closed, keeps his hand out as they race.

He breathes, carefully and calmly, and reaches out to them, past the twisting of the Dark Side, towards their minds.

It feels like it takes forever, every second lasting an hour or more as they close in.

And then, everything gets a bit calmer.

He cranks open an eye and looks down his arm to where the hounds are snarling a few feet away, their desire to tear his throat at in clear conflict with a very strong desire not to do that.

Without letting them go, he flicks his glance over to Ibani, just to check how she's getting on.