EP: Tattoine first Impression

[last_kallig]

Ibani stalks into Milliways in something of an irritable temper, dressed in her armor, red lightsaber still lit.

Tattoine is blazing hot and dry enough to suck the life from your bones, and the karking sand is somehow finding minute gaps in her armor and then sticking around to irritate her. And then a group of thugs had attempted to mug her and Khem Val in the spaceport.

That had been a novel experience for all of three seconds, then merely irritating as she was forced to kill them. "I've been planetside for less than a half hour and Tattooine has already lived up to its reputation as a blazing hot, crime-ridden, hell-hole full of sand."

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[iprotectyou]

Baze, sitting at the bar with a sun painted on his cheek, beams at her. He raises his teacup in a salute, and stands from his chair to cross over to her by the door.

"Hoi, Ibani! May the Force of others be with you!" Baze says, loosely wrapping an arm around her armored shoulders. "I'm sorry you've run into problems already, but at least you're planetside!"

[last_kallig]

Ibani flicks the lightsaber off and stows it safely on her belt. (That weapon, the one that used to belong to Darth Zash, tolerates her and nothing more. Still, a weapon is a weapon.)

"And may the Force of others be with you!" she answers, irritation fading a bit at the sight of her friend. She wraps one arm around him while the other tugs her helmet off.

Then she has to spit some sand out. "Gah! Don't know how it keeps getting past the filter."

She shakes her head, hair plastered to her skull with sweat. "I suppose that's something. Not MUCH, but something."

"How are you?"

[iprotectyou]

Oh, Ibani. Baze's heart goes out to her.

"I'm well, thanks for asking," he says, tempted to lead her to the bar. "Let's get you a drink to get that sand out of your mouth."

He creases his brow, his lips pressed into a thin line. How to approach this delicate subject? "I didn't know your lightsaber was red."

[last_kallig]

"I'm glad to hear that," she says, smiling. "And I will gladly accept that drink."

She can feel Baze's emotions as his brow creases and his lips thin and she tenses reflexively.

"Ah. Adegan crystals come in many colors, but red is the most common color seen among Sith, followed by purple and orange. This lightsaber was Darth Zash's, she 'gifted' it to me upon my becoming her apprentice," Ibani explains, looking down and not making eye contact.

"The saber tolerates me, barely, and I know it has at least one Dark Sorcery on it."

[iprotectyou]

Baze loosens his bearing immediately, cupping her sweaty, sandy cheek to hopefully make her look up at him.

"My apologies, Ibani. I thought that was a bleeding kyber crystal. Kyber only turns red when it has been dominated by the Dark Side of the Force, and then it bleeds," Baze explains, pressing a chaste kiss to her brow. He hopes she doesn't mind.

"I should have known that wasn't your saber."

[last_kallig]

Him cupping her cheek does make her look up at him and his loosened bearing makes her relax her own stance a little.

"Oh, no wonder you were worried!" she says, frowning at the description of bleeding kyber. "That sounds awful." The idea of something so full of Light being broken, wounded, to serve hate and pain alone is horrifying.

She's surprised at the kiss, but she finds she doesn't mind it. "Well, I was holding it, believing it to be mine would be the logical assumption."

Not to mention that doubting a Sith, any Sith, would be sensible behavior.

She snorts. "Technically the other saber isn't mine either. It belonged to a Jedi Padawan whom I hope has learned better since we met aboard that Republic ship."

[iprotectyou]

"Have you not had the chance to make your own sabers?" Baze says, his brow creased. He releases her, and leads them to his prior stool at the bar, and the empty one next to it.

"And you didn't kill that Padawan?"

[last_kallig]

"I could, perhaps, if I could find compatible crystals," she explains. "The practice sabers I sparred with are the only compatible crystals I've found, and they're far too weak to make a proper lightsaber with."

"And using new sabers might make Zash suspicious of me, which could make things more dangerous for me. There might be...questions about WHY I'm not compatible with it."

"No, I didn't," Ibani explains. "I didn't need to. We were just on the ship to take out a target that could give the Republic too much information, then escape before the warships following it blew us all to bits."

Ibani snorts. "She was trained, but green. She'd never fought in earnest before, not for real. No idea what the Jedi Grand Master was thinking, having her guard such a target, even if she WAS her Padawan."

[iprotectyou]

Baze polishes off his tea, and sets it on the counter for a refill. Bar fills the cup with more Ginger Peach Rooibos, and pops up a similar cup and a glass of water for Ibani. Baze pats the bar top gratefully.

"Thanks, Bar," he says, beaming down at her before turning to Ibani.

"I'm glad you didn't have to kill the Padawan. Green fighters are always hard to deal with, because you don't want to hurt them, not really," Baze says, shaking his head. "I am sorry that you can't make sabers of your own, though. When you're finished with your apprenticeship, will you finally be able to branch out and use your own sabers?"

[imthepilot]

Bodhi's eyes go wide at sight of the lightsaber. He's never seen one. Not in real life. Holo-vids and old newscast but never in person. The fact it's red doesn't quite register.

[last_kallig]

Ibani feels Bodhi's surprise before she sees him, the emotion clear in the Force.

She flicks the blade off, then stows it on her belt. Then she levers her helmet off, spitting sand.

"I hope I didn't startle you too badly?"

[imthepilot]

"No. Well, yes but- I've never seen one of those. Not-" He shrugs. "I thought everyone who used a lightsaber was gone."

[last_kallig]

"Ah," Ibani replies, expression turning a little sad. "They might be, in your time. I seem to be about 3000 years in the past from most of the people here who would recognize a lightsaber."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi's eyes widen. "So you've met others who recognise it?" He has suspicions.

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "Quite a few, actually. Though I haven't seen the Jedi Idilan in a while."

She frowns at that, then shakes her head. "But I haven't introduced myself yet. My name's Ibani." She walks over toward Bodhi, her armored footsteps louder than she'd like.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi doesn't flinch away, lifting his chin. "I'm Bodhi. Bodhi Rook. Nice to meet you. Can I ask where you're from?"

[last_kallig]

"Pleasure to meet you, Bodhi Rook. I'd be glad to answer the question, but the answer is a bit complicated."

She smiles wryly. "I don't know where I was born, but the first place I remember is Ilum. Korriban came after that, Dromund Kass, Balmorra, Nar Shaddaa. At the moment, Tattooine is on the other side of the Milliways door."

[arkadia]

"Oh, man. You have a glowy stab light plasma sword, too!"

Eden, situated up in the rafters, one leg tucked beneath him and the other dangling, has only seen one before! And it was blue! And this one isn't blue!

Today is an exciting day.

[last_kallig]

"I, yes, yes I do," Ibani says, looking up at Eden. She's pretty sure no one else, anywhere, has ever called a lightsaber that. Eden feels...strange in the Force, but that's far from unusual in Milliways.

She switches the lightsaber off and stows it on her belt. Then she removes her helmet.

"Shall I come up to introduce myself, or would you like to come down?" she asks, smiling slightly.

[arkadia]

Eden does not so much drop from the rafters as he does just tilt forward until he falls, and somehow manages to land on his feet anyway.

"The other one I saw was bluer than this one. And it smelled more," he pauses, tapping the side of his forehead, trying to think of the word. "Thing. This one is also good, though."

[last_kallig]

"Did you see it here?" Ibani asks. She's not getting much out the smell part, but blue could mean a Jedi. Which could be good...or very bad.

"Nice to meet you, my name's Ibani," she says, offering an armored hand.

[arkadia]

"Yep! Pretty sure there aren't any swords like that in my world," Eden chirps.

He gives her a very wide grin, shaking her hand enthusiastically. "Eden! Nice to meet you, too!"

[last_kallig]

Ibani doesn't mind enthusiastic, as long as he's not trying to rip her arm off. "Good to meet you, Eden."

"You wouldn't happen to remember the name of the person with the blue sword, would you? They might be from my universe."

[arkadia]

It's -- a strong handshake, to say the least, Eden being a fairly large and very strong teenage boy with more enthusiasm than is necessarily optimal.

"Antares? Endin? Inka?" Eden murmurs, peering off to one side, thoughtfully. "Nah, no, not remembering."

[last_kallig]

"Oh well, I suppose if they're here we'll cross paths one of these days."

She lets go of Eden's hand. "I haven't seen you here before, are you fairly new to Milliways?"