EP

[last_kallig]

OOM: Now the real work begins.

The armored figure that comes through the door to Milliways pauses just past the threshold. The outfit rather screams SITH!!! at 90 decibels, and it's not something she was planning on wearing in Milliways, but since she's here.....

Well, she could use a drink and some company while she plans out how to deal with the latest curve ball her Master's plans have thrown her.


(OOC: Open for tags until I give her another EP)

Comments

[last_kallig]

"Not yet," Ibani replies. "But I know enough about what people in power are like to have an idea of how steep the price of dramatic change is likely to be."

Which is why she's aiming for a more subtle approach.

[street_sparrow]

"Knock 'em all down and start again. 'Cept they wouldn't go easy."

[last_kallig]

"But what happens when you knock them all down?" Ibani asks. "You'd break the systems that keep society running, and then everyone suffers until you fix or replace them. That's a cost too."

[street_sparrow]

"People are suffering anyway."

[last_kallig]

"But they'll suffer more the more the system breaks. More famine, more disease, more crime. Things will get much worse before they start to get better, and that's if whoever winds up in charge has majority support and knows what they're doing."

"Not that the system SHOULDN'T get taken down, but there are always costs even to the people you're trying to help."

[street_sparrow]

"They can't get much worse", he says simply, and he believes it.

[last_kallig]

"I hope you're right," Ibani replies. She doesn't believe it, but then she's seen a lot of terrible things.

[street_sparrow]

"I found one of the old men dead last week. Died in the night. He was a soldier, and nobody cared - and he's the sixth this winter."

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods sadly. "From the cold?"

[street_sparrow]

"Yeah", he says sadly. "Not enough food doesn't help, but mostly the cold."

[last_kallig]

"It doesn't," Ibani says quietly. "Hunger makes the cold worse, I remember that."

[street_sparrow]

"When you were a slave?" He shakes his head in sorrow and disgust. "'Cause they could just replace you if you died."

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "Child slaves were cheap, thanks to the War. And there was less risk of us trying to fight back."

[street_sparrow]

"What happened in the War?"

[last_kallig]

"A lot of people died," Ibani says bitterly. "And the more people die, the more chaos there is, the easier it is for people to wind up enslaved by people preying on the weak and the vulnerable."

[street_sparrow]

"Weak and vulnerable" - only slightly stumbling over the word - "and the people that might have looked after them are gone", he says with a slight nod.

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "Easy prey. I'm guessing that's where I came from, at least. I don't remember NOT being a slave."

[street_sparrow]

"Must've been really young. Was anybody taking care of you after that?"

[last_kallig]

"Ma'Vena took care of me," Ibani says with a fond smile. "I thought of her as my mother. She raised me the best she could, considering the situation we were in."

[street_sparrow]

"Good. 'm glad you had somebody at least."

[last_kallig]

"So am I," Ibani replies. "I don't like to think about what would have happened to me without her."

And death is not the worst option she's thinking of, in her opinion.

"What about you? Have you got someone watching your back at home?"

[street_sparrow]

"My sister tries to look after me. Brings me food when she can, sometimes more clothes."

[last_kallig]

"I'm glad you have someone," Ibani says with a smile. "But she's having troubles of her own?"

[street_sparrow]

"She's only twelve. And I don't think our - they don't know she does it."

[last_kallig]

Ah, that stumble there provides some clues. His parents aren't dead but he's not with them? That suggests a few things.

"They?" she asks quietly. "If you want to tell me, that is. I won't pry."