OOMS and an EP

[last_kallig]

OOM:

"He was a warrior who slaughtered armies, a teacher who trained a thousand dark apprentices, a man who was both Jedi and Sith."


"...tell me something, are you ready to die for us?"


"I need you to retrieve a tablet...."



Ibani enters the Bar, weary and dripping wet from all the rain on her side of the door. Maybe you could hand her a towel or something?

Comments

[street_sparrow]

"Towel?" Gavroche offers, holding out a very thick and fluffy one.

[last_kallig]

"Thank you, Gavroche," Ibani says with a smile as she takes the offered towel.

She tries to dry her head off first, which leaves her hair sticking up in places.

"A jungle needs rain, but I've never been stuck outside in it before."

[street_sparrow]

He grins fleetingly and gestures towards her head.

"You've gone to do your mission, then?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani attempts to pat her hair down. It works, sort of.

Ibani nods. "Both of them. I've begun to infiltrate the cult and I just came from carrying out the first part of my actual Master's plan for Skotia's demise."

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche nods, considering. "Does it involve something that lives in the jungle with nasty poison, or something?"

[last_kallig]

"There are a few of those, but they're not part of the plan," Ibani explains. "No, this was a raid on a secret base of his in the jungle. Apparently he is, was, keeping his bodyguards enslaved by holding onto a religious relic of their goddess."

Beat.

"And he's now short three apprentices, but I doubt he'll care much about that."

[street_sparrow]

"Apprentices seem to be pretty expendable in your world", he agrees sadly. "You've stolen this relic back for them, then? Maybe damaged their loyalty to him a little bit?"

[last_kallig]

"Perhaps, I don't know what Lord Zash intends to do with it. She may intend for me to use it to command them instead, perhaps force them to turn on him."

"Skotia and his bodyguards are off planet at the moment, and I left no witnesses. I suspect it will be days before he or his bodyguards even know the base was attacked, never mind what's now missing."

It was a SECRET base, after all.

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche grimaces. "You probably won't have much say in it either way, right? When you say command them... threaten to destroy their relic unless they do what she says?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "She suggested that they believe they must obey whoever has the tablet in their possession, so blatant threats may not be required. I still don't like it."

[street_sparrow]

"It's manipulative", he says with a nod. "But at least it's not torture."

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "If I'm lucky, she'll never insist on my using that means of persuasion."

Her second trial was bad enough, thank you.

"Are you up for a milkshake? It's been....Force, quite a lot of hours since I've eaten anything. I got HER mission right when I was recovering from my first trial to join the cult."

[street_sparrow]

"I'll take a milkshake", he agrees readily. "And you'll take a full meal."

[last_kallig]

"Aren't you a little young to be mothering me?" she teases.

She'll get the full meal though, because she DOES need it. A meal with a milkshake, because they are tasty.

Her mention of the trial reminds her of the vision she had afterward. "Do Wizards in your world ever have prophetic visions?" she asks, serious.

[street_sparrow]

"I'm a healer, I take care of people", he says with an airy shrug, then sobers. "It's not unknown. Doesn't happen to everyone, but it does happen."

[last_kallig]

"It happens with Force-sensitives sometimes, especially in dreams" Ibani explains. "I'd never had one before, but that's not unusual at my age."

She takes a sip of milkshake. "I had one, after the trial. I could feel the Force...beckoning me, I suppose. I followed."

She gives a frustrated sigh. "I saw, I felt, but I don't understand what it MEANS. I have no context."

[street_sparrow]

"Sometimes it's annoying that way. You get the images but you don't know what they mean until after the event's already happened. What did you see?"

[last_kallig]

"A prison," Ibani begins. "A strange one, the most heavily guarded I've ever seen: Sith Spawn, guards, complicated defenses.

"Then a saw a man inside that prison, held in a force-field. I could feel his power in the Force, so he may have been a Jedi."

"Then the vision changed and I was falling through space toward a space station, one whose design I didn't recognize. I felt....I felt an overwhelming sense or horror and dread, worse than I had ever felt before. Then I could hear a vast metallic clanking noise, like marching almost. After that, I woke and saw nothing more."

[street_sparrow]

"You didn't pick up anything about why he was in the prison?" he asks. "Or who you might have been when you were falling?"

[last_kallig]

"Nothing about him," Ibani replies. "And I was never anyone other than myself. Perhaps the 'fall' was the vision's way of trying to tell me where the space station is, where the trouble will be, to give me a view of the surroundings."

She glowers at her milkshake. "Not that seeing it from the outside helps much when I don't even recognize what kind of station it is."

[street_sparrow]

"It might be", Gavroche agrees. "Or it could have been literal, but let's hope not if it was supposed to be a prediction. It might be it hasn't even been built yet."

[last_kallig]

"Could be, or its old enough that it predates Republic or Imperial work. If someone found a lost station they'd certainly have motive to repair it, use it as a base of operations.

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche nods. "Got to be cheaper than making a whole new one."

[last_kallig]

"Vastly," Ibani replies with a chuckle.

"It's only been a few days since I saw you for me, but I have a feeling it's been longer here?"

[street_sparrow]

"Maybe a month?" he says after a moment's thought. "It was your birthday."