Au: Kid Ibani-Tatooine Era Obi-Wan Kenobi

[last_kallig]

(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.

Comments

[acertainpov]

He smiles at her again, pleased at her eagerness and impressed with her knowledge.

"That would be very useful. I know Craya would probably benefit from some cheap medicines if we can find them."

[last_kallig]

"And a little extra income for us," Ibani replies. "Which will be handy with the extra expenses of two people as opposed to one." Ibani probably ought to replace the robes she has, for one.

"And I can purge poisons nearly in my sleep after all those months of her training," Ibani replies. "Nothing like being poisoned multiple times a day for months to teach you speed at the task."

Ibani is pleased at Ben's being pleased with her. She hasn't had that since her mother was murdered, and part of her longs for it.

[acertainpov]

What in the Galaxy did they think they were doing on Korriban? Ben doesn't let a reaction to that show, he just nods in agreement.

He's not really in the habit of selling things for money, but she is going to be expensive and he'll have to learn.

He leads he out into the rocks around his hut, moving from crevasse to ditch to show her various plants, picking them in moderation and eating those few that can be eaten straight from the ground.

[last_kallig]

Making Sith, weeding out the 'weak', making monsters, that's what they were doing.

Ibani pays careful attention to what he shows her, happy to eat some of what can be eaten straight from the ground.

She reaches into the Force, looking for anything that could prove chemically interesting. She reaches out to touch Ben occasionally, while they travel. She's missed touch, even if she hadn't realized it before.

[acertainpov]

After a while he ends up just walking directly with her, a hand on her shoulder or at her elbow at nearly all times. He just needed to get the sensation of her needing it once, to offer it up to her.

He also holds her back every time they get too close to an animal that might scare or startle, and introduces her to the occasional lizard life in the desert as they go, talking occassionally mostly about the nature around them.

He doesn't mention the Force once, but he is looking at the way Ibani uses it.

[last_kallig]

For Ibani, the Force is her primary sense, more so than sight. Reaching out in the Force is even easier for her than reaching with her physical hands. Her touch is delicate, quiet, precise. She's used to hiding, if not in the way Ben is.

Ibani is fascinated by the animals, by animal life that doesn't want to eat her on sight. "Before this place I'd never met an animal that didn't want to eat me on sight," she says quietly as one the lizards scurries off. "Unnaturally aggressive, Dark, and hungry."

[acertainpov]

Ben has a careful invisibility - even now he reads as a completely Force insenstive old man, despite his eyes and face responding to what he senses. She'll have to learn to rely on her physical sense to really read him.

"Can't imagine why," Ben says, "you wouldn't make much of a meal.

"Most animals won't want to eat something that's too much trouble. They must have been very unnatural."

[last_kallig]

She will, and that will be tricky!

"I'm not THAT tiny," she grumbles when he says she wouldn't make much of a meal.

"I suppose they were," Ibani allows. "I've got scars from some of them."

"Do you think we have enough for our meal?"

[acertainpov]

"Enough for now, yes."

He wraps an arm around her shoulders. "We're going to have to work on making you more of an appetising meal. I think we've got a good selection here."

[last_kallig]

Ibani leans into the arm around her shoulders. "Most of them need to be cooked?" she guesses.

[acertainpov]

"At least enough to soften them up," he says. "It'll take a while but we can do some training while it cooks."

Nothing strenuous, but he's curious to know what the extent of hr training has been so far, and what the best direction to take her in will be. His assumption at the moment is that while her skill with the physical Force seems great, she has a lot of emotional turmoil to work through to keep her safe.

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "I'd like that." She's sure Ben will be better than her previous instructors, if only because he won't hurt her if, when, she fails at something!

She does have a lot of emotional turmoil, although getting her to let go of it might be difficult. She was trained as a Sith first, and negative emotions are a power source.

[acertainpov]

That's what he'll work on!

There're a couple of Faybo sniffing around Ben's hut when they return. They glance over at the humans with what could be interpreted as a hopeful expression.

Ben just shakes his head with tolerant disbelief. "We haven't even started preparing. Come back in an hour."

And they scurry off, just like that.

[last_kallig]

Ibani chuckles at the tiny creatures' hopeful expressions. "I think everything around here knows you pretty well."

She helps carry their finds into the hut, curious as to what the prep work will involve. She's never cooked before, so the process is something of a mystery.

[acertainpov]

"They know I'm an old softie they can take advantage of," Ben mutters. "But they're helpful. There are parts of the plants we can't eat that the Faybo enjoy, and they keep the insects away, so it helps to be good neighbours."

Inside he starts up the heater and breaks a piece of cactus into a pot. "Okay, let's see what you remember. Which pieces of this are edible?" He picks out some of the plants they've gathers and starts going through them again, making a conversation about it and repeating what they already discussed.

[last_kallig]

"A mutually beneficial relationship."

Ibani gets most of what he asks right, her memory is pretty good! She doesn't flinch when she makes mistakes, doesn't feel distressed in the Force, but her muscles tense anyway. Her body remembers punishment, even though her mind has no reason to believe he will hurt her.

[acertainpov]

Ben provides repetition of everything she gets wrong, but spends most of his time nodding in confirmation at what she gets right.

His Force presence is undetectable of course, but occasionally when Ibani tenses, she might find herself untensing quicker than she'd expect.

They got through all the vegetables in order: he shows her how to cut and prepare each one, gives information about nutrition where he knows it, and occasionally tells her what not to do.

But they all go into the pot together. There's not enough moisture for a stew, but it'll come together in something resembling a passable stir fry.

He even has spices in one of the pots lying around the place.

[last_kallig]

One day she won't tense at all, but that ingrained almost reflex will take time to break. Ben can probably guess why the almost reflex exists based on what little Ibani has told him.

"And now we let that cook for a bit while we train?"

[acertainpov]

"Now we let that cook while we train," Ben confirms, taking a seat by the pot and settling down to stir and watch.

"I want to start from the beginning, if you don't mind. It might seem like I'm asknig you to do very basic things, I just want to get a feel for you."

Which means they'll be levitating cooking pots mostly this evening, sorry!

[last_kallig]

"I understand, you have no idea what I can do, other than the force cloak."

Ibani doesn't mind moving pots around with the Force. Her approach though, is different than a Jedi's would be. She uses positive emotion to reach for the Force, but she always keeps control, she rides the wave and does not drown.

[acertainpov]

He stops her after a few minutes.

"Don't reach so much," he says, regarding that very thing. "The Force is always there, just let it flow through you."

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods, and she tries, she really does!

It's just that Ben is asking her to do the exact opposite of what her previous instructors have pounded into her for years. It feels wrong, to not reach out to metaphorically meet the Force halfway.

Eventually, she makes a frustrated noise and says, "I don't, I don't understand." She doesn't like admitting that, for multiple reasons.

[acertainpov]

Ben stops, watches her frustration for a few seconds, then nods.

"We'll get there. Just remember, there's no hurry."

But there will be meditation practice on this.

[last_kallig]

"I suppose there isn't," she replies. "I'm...not used to that either. I've always needed to get any edge I could quickly, to stay alive. Korriban was much worse of course, but even before."

[acertainpov]

He's quiet for a few more seconds, thinking about this.

"I think that's enough for tonight then," he says. "The food is ready."

They will take it slowly for now: perhaps more so that even he's comfortable with, to reinforce that above everything else, here she is safe.