last_kallig: (SWTOR)
last_kallig ([personal profile] last_kallig) wrote2020-09-18 06:42 pm

Au: Kid Ibani-Tatooine Era Obi-Wan Kenobi

(OOC: Content warning for mention of torture, harm done by and to children, suicidal ideation and quite possibly suicide attempt.)

Ibani is a fourteen year old Sith Acolyte and her life of pain is written in her body for those who can read it. The scars of a slave collar on her neck, the letters and numbers carved under one eye like a bantha brand, those were only the beginning. She's been shocked regularly with force lightning for years as well as being subjected to more primitive methods of torture, and all have left their mark. Scars from teeth, claws and blades mark her skin, the echoes of broken bones still visible if you look the right way in the Force.

She should be dead, and she might be shortly, despite her struggles. She doesn't know how she got HERE, wherever this hot desert is, instead of the cold desert of Korriban. The gravity is wrong, the temperature is wrong, and while the Force shouted just before she landed here it is strangely silent now. (She might be insane, in which case she should put herself down before she harms anyone, but she's waiting for more evidence on that one way or the other.) She's dying by inches of heat and thirst and she can't push her body any further, even with all the Force tricks she knows.

She crawls on her belly under an overhang of rock, collapses. She can enter a trance, reduce her need for water, but that means that without help she will simply fail to ever wake, will slip away into the Force in death. It's a long shot, but she's worth more alive than dead even to the most nefarious of persons. (She knows better than to expect mercy or kindness from strangers.)

Ibani sinks into the Force, awaiting aid or death.
acertainpov: (hermit: a task to do)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-25 12:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Ben grins at her from under his hood.

"What use would I have for that?" he asks, lying in his tone. Obviously the uses for hiding himself, maybe even Luke or someone else, from prying eyes, would be numerous. But he's doing so well here.
acertainpov: (hermit: listen)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-25 12:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't think of myself as a fish," he admits. "Not in this environment.

Dolo draws up eventually near a rock that protuded form the dunes and forms a small overhang with some shadow.

"Here's where you arrived. Did you want to look for something?"
acertainpov: (hermit: middle distance)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-26 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Ben watches her from on top of Dolo's head, his fingers curled and resting against his beard. He already did a bit of a check last night, and has been trying to sense something already, but wants to watch her technique without intruding.

"Well, we don't have much," he says, "but Tatooine has a lot to recommend itself against Korriban, at least."

Can she stay here? Probably not, but he won't let her take her exit, and he doesn't know where else she can go.
acertainpov: (hermit: regret)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-26 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Ben meets her gaze, his expression impassive, though internally he sighs. How long until she tries it, he can stop her and they can get it spoken? Or how long until she stops considering it, and he can finally rest?

"I cannot imagine what that must have been like," he says now, sympathetically. "I'm sorry you lived it."
acertainpov: (hermit: rueful)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-26 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm sorry to bring more bad news," Ben says sadly, "but Dromund Kaas has also fallen into legend by now. I doubt you'll meet many people who had even heard of it."

He pats Dolo's side and they head off once more.
acertainpov: (hermit: hope)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-26 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"They say similar about this place," Ben remarks, but lightly. Not for the same reasons or to the same extent.

It's not much of a city if you're used to Coruscant or Sundari - mostly low white buildings hunched together around white sandy roads. But even this many people in this heat creates a smell and a noise that oppresses.

They wend their way through the city towards the space ports, and Ben keeps an eye out as they do so. Thankfully he sees no white plastoid helmets, and is able to stay relaxed.
acertainpov: (hermit: listen)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-26 07:48 pm (UTC)(link)
She will find, if she looks, that there is no one likely to notice her strength. The entire city, in fact the entire planet, has no one stronger in the Force than Ben himself. And he gives no reaction to her pulling in on herself.

(But he is grateful.)

They reach a watering hole and Ben climbs down off Dolo's back, offering a hand to help Ibani follow.

"I'm going to go into the Cantina and find out what I can. Would you prefer to stay outside with Dolo?"

He's not sure how she'll fare with that many people.
acertainpov: (hermit: hmmm)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-26 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"No one takes Dolo where she doesn't want to go," he says, with a slight smile. "But do try not to let anyone steal my melons."

He nods at them both and, looking around just to check he is leaving them somewhere safe, he heads into the Cantina.
acertainpov: (hermit: explain)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-26 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
There turn out to be a few people Ben knows in the cantina, and he's as charming and friendly as ever, enough to find out that no, no Imperials have shown up in the last day, and no one has heard anything holonet chatter.

He'll have to keep an ear to the ground anyway.

Eventually he returns, a more relaxed smile on his face, and starts to unload the melons from Dolo's back.

"I have a buyer for these," he explains to Ibani, "and then we can fill up the water and get something to eat before heading back."
acertainpov: (hermit: hope)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-27 11:13 am (UTC)(link)
Ben tuts in disappointment.

"There's always a chancer," he says. "Thank you for the help."
acertainpov: (hermit: explain)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-27 11:56 am (UTC)(link)
Are any lives normal, in this Galaxy?

"A friend of mine called Craya Dubeon," Ben explains, his voice slightly lowered but not so that anyone would necessarily notice. "I usually meet her down here..."

He leads the way down some dirt paths away from the main streets, towards a warehouse in on the edge of the space port region. It's closed up, and from the outside doesn't look like it's in use.

"I hope she's in today. I wasn't planning to come into town today."
acertainpov: (hermit: still Kenobi)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-27 12:09 pm (UTC)(link)
No one thinks about the need to hide themselves form the Force these days - the warehouse is in fact teaming with people, and radiates with fear, despair and pain to various extents. At the core, though, flows a strong current of hope and love.

The approach is being watched from above. As Ben and Ibani draws close, a sniper on a nearby rooftop focuses the two of them in their sights.

Ben doesn't seem to know about this.
acertainpov: (hermit: still Kenobi)

[personal profile] acertainpov 2020-09-27 12:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Ben stops long enough to look at Ibani, to soak in the feelinf of more familiarity than he expected.

He should have predicted this, should have realised the specific way she felt. But they're here now, and it might be even more fortunate.

He offers a faint smile and shakes his head. "They're distrustful. But I'm a friend."

His hand squeezes hers, thumb pressing into her palm. He's not going to let go now.

He lets go of her hand a short distance from the warehouse, and holds up his own to indicate she should stay, before knocking on the door.

"It's Ben," he says.

A hatch in the door slides open, and a pair of eyes set in an orange face peer out at them.

"Were you followed?" The language is Galactic basic, but the accent distinctive to anyone who's met a native Rylothian.

Ben spreads the hand not loaded with melons. "When am I ever?"

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