Leverage Cassian AU: Summer Trip - Yukon

[last_kallig]

Before school starts, they decide that a trip somewhere nice and remote can serve multiple purposes. Swimming lessons, survival training, and a place where Ibani can REALLY show Cassian what she can do without fear of witnesses!

The Yukon seemed like a good fit, so that's where they've landed.

Comments

[last_kallig]

Joy is definitely the word, as she smiles and laughs at the site of a heron gulping down a fish that is almost too big for it!

She crouches on the dock, sticks her fingers in the water. Perhaps a minute later, there are fish swarming around her hand. "It tickles when they mouth at my fingers," she giggles.

[childofrebellion]

"There are some places where a whole beauty routine, mainly for the tourists is having fish nibble your feet."

[last_kallig]

"Really?"

"Tourists can be really weird," she announces after a moment more of thought to Cassian. She lets the fish go and they scatter, the way their instincts direct them to.

[childofrebellion]

"Yes, they can be," They continue around the path then leave the lake and go through a meadow to reach a quickly flowing river with a small bridge over it.

[last_kallig]

Ibani trails her fingers through the wildflowers. "So many different shapes and colors!"

Ibani leans over the bridge railing to look down at the river. "The water moves fast here, not a good place to swim?"

[childofrebellion]

"I know, everything's in bloom. No, this river isn't safe for swimming or much boating either. The lake's safer." They might later even find some berries for baking.

[last_kallig]

Ibani stops abruptly. "We don't want to go that way," she says quietly, pointing in the direction of an area that has some blackberry bushes. "There's something large there, omnivorous, it's found food in there that it's eating, sweet." A black bear has found some berry bushes and is happily munching away!

[childofrebellion]

Cassian frowns and watches how the bushes move, "No, we'll leave the bear to their snack and go back."

[last_kallig]

"Bear," Ibani says to herself, committing to memory what the creature probably is.

She wraps an arm around Cassian. "We can see the rest another day, if need be." They're upwind from the bear and it is intent on the berries, so it hasn't noticed them yet.

[childofrebellion]

"We've got time and there are enough berries to go around," He smiles and gives her a hug as they turn back to the cabin.

[last_kallig]

Seeing Cassian smile makes Ibani happy, as does the hug!

"It's a pretty place! Not sure what there is about climbing that draws your friend away."

"Enough room for me to show you what I can really do, too. The later forms that I prefer don't do well for demonstrations in indoor spaces!"

[childofrebellion]

"He likes the challenge that mountains present," Cassian prefers flying to climbing, "Good, I want to learn more about them."

[last_kallig]

"I can understand liking a challenge," Ibani allows. "My pick wouldn't be climbing, though."

"That's handy, because I want to show them to you! Can't really show some things off properly without a lightsaber and a blaster, but..."

[childofrebellion]

"Mine either. Maybe we can find somethings that would give you a similar weight and feel," Back at the cabin, he does some more unpacking.

[last_kallig]

Ibani helps with the unpacking. "It's the magnetic field that's the big issue," she explains. "Blasters are the most common form of ranged weapon where I'm from, and the fire plasma. The magnetic field that contains the plasma in a lightsaber can deflect blaster bolts. A lot of the maneuvers in the third form are designed specifically for that purpose."

"If you haven't got Force users of your own as a counter, massed blaster fire is the next most reliable way to kill a Force user. Doesn't matter if you can sense the bolts coming if there are too many to block or dodge."

[childofrebellion]

Cassian thinks about how that would be possible and shakes his head in amazement, "That must be a dangerous skill to learn."

[last_kallig]

"It was," Ibani agrees. "I didn't get to make a lightsaber of my own, but I used one for that part of my training, no way around it, really."

"That's what this is from," she continues, tapping a burn scar on her arm. "They brought in some of the troops stationed on Korriban to take the shots at us for training." Because no Sith would stoop to using a blaster. "I think she was more afraid than I was, when she hit me."

[childofrebellion]

He looks at the burn scar which he had wondered about, "Because of what your teacher might do or what you might do to them?"

[last_kallig]

"Probably both," Ibani admits. "Legally speaking, any Sith can do whatever they please to a non-Force sensitive. Anyone of high rank has enough Sith connections to give them some protection, but a Private...." Well, Cassian can probably guess.

"We weren't considered REAL Sith, but I don't know that they knew that. Or that my instructors would have cared if I'd force choked her to death or the like."

[childofrebellion]

He shakes his head as there are multiple levels of wrongness in that set up.

[last_kallig]

There really are!

"I hope she got sent somewhere far away from any Sith, after that. It's never really SAFE, for an Imperial soldier, but it would be a lot safer without any Sith around."

"I don't know that anyone will try and FIX things, now that I'm gone," she says, voice quiet. "It was the only reason I kept fighting to live, really."

[childofrebellion]

Cassian leans over to give her a hug as that's a lot for her to put on herself, "Whenever things are truly bad, people find ways to fight."

[last_kallig]

"I hope so," Ibani says, hugging Cassian tightly. "I feel guilty sometimes, about escaping." About surviving.

Ash snuffles against her pant legs.

[childofrebellion]

"I can understand why you feel that way but there isn't a reason for you to. You have to live your life and can't carry the weight of the world on you," He knows survivor's guilt very well and how hard it is to shake.

[last_kallig]

"I thought I did, for a long time," she says. "Was the only way I found to reconcile who I was with what I needed to be to stay alive. Used it to justify my continued existence, to keep my mind from shattering under the strain." Her face is practically buried in Cassian's shirt.