OOM: AU Child! Ibani

[last_kallig]

The last few months have been even harder than usual, after the death of her mother figure. Perhaps grief made her weaker, more vulnerable to sickness, because she knows she's dangerously ill. She hadn't meant to wind up here, wherever here is, but it has shown up in the nick of time.

Ibani shivers against one of the walls of Milliways, her body wracked with fever and hunger both. She's somewhere between seven and ten, clothed in fabric with far too many holes in it, and wearing a slave shock collar around her neck. Her bones stand out too sharply against her skin, and her eyes are fever bright and darting around the room.

She's not sure if this is some dying hallucination, if she's gone mad, or if she truly HAS wound up somewhere utterly strange. Whatever this is, instinct and her body DEMAND food, fuel to fight the sickness that is killing her. Untrained in the Force, she's grasping on instinct for any energy it can give her.

Maybe, maybe if she gets close enough to one of the tables she can steal some food without anyone noticing. Yes, yes that's a good plan

Comments

[27_53]

Skellig does use the silverware to cut up his bread into bite-sized chunks. He will dip it into his whipped cream and grab some berries once he gets to that point.

"Do you want me to cut yours for you, so it is easier to grab? Some people will use a fork," he demonstrates, stabbing a chunk and popping it into his mouth. "But my hands are sometimes not steady, so I tend to use my fingers."

[last_kallig]

"Yes, please," Ibani says.

Her expression turns concerned when he says his hands are sometimes not steady. "Were you in a collar before, like me? If a collar gets activated too much, sometimes the unsteadiness doesn't go away with time." Nerve damage, in other words.

[27_53]

Drawing her plate closer to him, he works to cut up her bread into bite-sized chunks, shaking his head.

"No, I have never been in a collar," he says. "I just...they call it arthritis, in humans."

His grip is slightly modified on the utensils (not that she would notice, since this is all new to her) as he holds them, primitive in a sense. Once he's finished, he pushes the plate back to her - after adding some of the whipped cream on one edge.

"My bones rub together, in my fingers and my hands, and it makes them sore. It is worse when it is cold, or raining."

[last_kallig]

"You can't heal your body like you did mine?" She frowns. "I don't want you to be in pain."

[27_53]

"I have practiced and attempted," he admits. "But I have not been able to figure it out, yet."

Skellig shrugs slightly, a rustle of feathers as he reaches for a chunk of the bread on his plate. "I hope to figure it out one day. Until then...I have learned how to manage it, with my mind, so it is less noticeable."

[last_kallig]

"Maybe I can help, when I'm bigger," Ibani suggests. "But I am glad you can manage it now."

Ibani stabs the french toast with the fork, lifts it to her mouth. There is glee from her as she tastes the food. "Thank you, it tastes so good!"

[27_53]

Skellig laughs a bit at her reaction - he has not had anyone react like that when he has cooked for them, so he appreciates it! "You are welcome," he says cheerfully. "I am glad you like it. One of the people I met here some time ago, taught me how to make it."

After several bites, he nods back towards the fridge. "If you are still hungry after you finish, I can make more, but it might be better to keep spacing things out. We can have lunch in a few hours, and then maybe dinner after it gets dark."

[last_kallig]

His cheer makes her happier, a positive feedback loop!

"If I eat too much, I will be sick," Ibani agrees. "I had better space it out."

"Three meals? That's...isn't that a lot of food?" She is surprised. "Most of us were children like me, but even the adults only got two ration bars once a day."

[27_53]

"I do not wish to overwhelm your system," he says gently. "But you have been underfed for a very long time, by what your body tells me when I listen to it. Smaller, more frequent meals may be better for you as you recover."

most of us were children like me

Skellig's mood shifts slightly, grows a bit more serious.

"Others in the mines?" He asks softly, not pressing - if she doesn't want to talk about what is on the other side of her Door (he hasn't even asked her if she noticed if her Door was still there, that he will wait to explain) then he won't force her to.

[last_kallig]

"Children are cheaper, can fit in smaller spaces, so we were bought for mining," Ibani explains. "There are a few grownups, to work the machines, but we gather the crystals. Everyone is in a collar, except the guards."

She fidgets, stabs another piece of breakfast. "I've never heard of any of us living long enough to be grownups."

[27_53]

Again, to his credit - and thanks to many, many years of practice at hiding his emotions, both 'inside' and 'out' - his reaction is minimal.

"Well," he says (once he trusts his voice to not betray what he is feeling) and shakes his head. "You will never wear a collar like that again, ever. You are free."

And if anyone disagrees who might walk through the Front Door in search of her, they will be met with a very angry Skellig with a grudge.

[last_kallig]

She can feel his protectiveness toward her, his concern for the children, his anger at the people running the operation.

"I know you wouldn't let them hurt me," she says, quiet. "But I feel...guilty, for being free."

[27_53]

"Time...moves strange, on our home worlds, while we are in this place. For me, while I am here it nearly pauses outside the Door, so that it is as if I never left. Perhaps once you are older, and stronger...you and I can go back out your door and get the rest of them out. I would help you to do that, if you wanted to."

Obviously she would have to recover greatly, and train herself and her powers.

"And I know others here who would not hesitate to join us to fight."

This is a very deep subject of conversation to be having with a child of her age, but he knows it is bothering her - he can see it in her posture, feel it in her energy, sense it with the sadness that reflects behind her eyes.

[last_kallig]

"Thank you. That, that means a lot," she says, quietly.

"Maybe that's why I found my way here, so I could save them." Even if they don't like her, even if some of them call her a freak.

[27_53]

She is not a freak. Skellig will shout that from the rafters of the bar, if he must.

"Maybe it is. When I first found myself here...I told you, I was very ill. I did not know where I was supposed to be, and after I recovered here for some time, I was able to return home and help others. I never truly understood why the Door showed up when it did, but I am grateful for it."

[last_kallig]

"Me too," she tells him. "Do you help people by healing them?"

[27_53]

"Most of the time."

Skellig nods slightly.

"Sometimes I do not have to heal people, but simply give them guidance," he adds. "Sometimes I am called to a place and I never seem to find the reason I felt pulled there, but I figure...even if I do not understand why, perhaps whatever was meant to happen did without me noticing it."

[last_kallig]

"Maybe I'm like you, just a little," she seems pleased at that thought. "I get...feelings that I'm supposed to go somewhere or do something that turn out to be right."

[27_53]

"You might be," he agrees. "Our energies are...different. They do not mix freely, when I try to listen to them...but they also do not fight, so I am taking that as a good sign, since you are to be under my wing."

Both physically and metaphorically.

[last_kallig]

Ibani can feel that she will be ill if she eats much more, so she stops.

"You'll keep me?" she asks, hopeful.

[27_53]

Without hesitation: "Absolutely."

[last_kallig]

"But, WHY?" She believes that he means it, she just doesn't get why he's turning his life upside down.

[27_53]

Shifting in the chair, he turns his to face her a little better, and reaches out for her hand.

"Because it is the right thing to do," he says, as if it is the most logical answer in the world. "I know it will not be easy, but I am not afraid of that."

He squeezes her hand lightly. "Because you are a child, you are a person, Ibani. A person who deserves to be treated with fairness and kindness, a person who is worthy of love and respect, and while that may not have happened before...I am going to change that."

[last_kallig]

"Because if you don't do the right thing, maybe no one ever will," she says, voice soft. She seems, in this moment, far older than her years.

[27_53]

Skellig knows that Ibani has already seen and experienced far more than any person should have to endure over a lifespan, crammed into several short years of existence. Horrors and torment that even he fears to try and imagine taking place.

"Right," he says. "You matter. You matter to me."

And if I were to do nothing, I do not know if I could live with myself.