May the Fourth Be With The All Skate

[jedi_interrupted]

The bar shifts, or it changed when no one was looking, and now resembles a certain cantina popular with the villainy and scum, as well as more upstanding folks. The air is dryer than usual, and a taste of grit and sand just hangs in the air. It just makes you want some blue milk doesn't it?

Has your character changed? Perhaps...who can tell? The Landlord I suppose but they aren't talking.

[ooc: HI and Welcome to a Star Wars themed All Skate, the best way to celebrate May the Fourth! Party style post. You do not have to interact with any of my characters to play.
The Rules are simple:
- This post, and any post with the subject heading ALL SKATE are open to everyone.
That means old characters, new characters, retired characters, doubles of characters, original characters, non-canon compliant characters.
- We will all play nice and adhere to Wheaton's Law: Don't be a dick.
- Gratuitous behavior, either of a violent or sexual nature, will not be tolerated in the Comm. Take that to an OOM, and then Content Warning the hell out of it before you link it.
- Communication is paramount. Everyone's keyed up, let's just have some fun.]

Comments

[last_kallig]

"I suppose time changes things," Ibani replies.

"In the closing days of the Great Hyperspace War, long before I was born, the Jedi Order tried to kill everyone with even a drop of Sith blood in them, without regard to age or Force ability." Sith blood, as if it was a bloodline or a species, which is probably not a way Obi-Wan is used to hearing the word Sith.

Her smile turns tired for a moment. "Even in my present there are Jedi who would do the same thing again, if they could."

[acertainpov]

No, but Obi-Wan didn't do extra reading, it doesn't mean that he's completely ignorant of history.

"Then I don't think I would recognise them as Jedi," he says. "Which I understand might be a bit of a surprise coming from me, sitting here a General in the Republic Army."

But, there it is. And he lets it show, just a hint of the regret he feels at the appalling circumstances the Jedi Order finds itself in.

"Nevertheless, the offer stands. And you can tell me if I'm not sincere."

[last_kallig]

"No, you are sincere," Ibani replies, smile turning less tired.

She moves to reach out to touch his hand when she feels his regret, but stops, unsure if it would be welcome. "I may be able to offer less direct aid as well. It occurs to me that I've never seen a Jedi use a force shield even though the technique does not require the Dark side."

[acertainpov]

She stops, and he considers, and a second late his own hand closes the distance. Yeah, that's okay.

"What does that technique involve?"

He'd rather assumed it was similar to his own use of disguising his presence, going undercover, but she's talking about it like it's something much more useful.

[last_kallig]

Ibani's smile broadens at the contact. She might be a bit touch starved, just a little.

"It's a protective barrier, something capable of stopping blaster bolts, lightsabers, almost anything, really. The more...energetic whatever you're trying to stop is the more it will take out of you."

She grins mischievously. "Or if you shape one correctly and put it on the ground your sparring partner can suddenly find themselves without any traction. Just a side benefit that, but hilarious."

[acertainpov]

In which case, he's just going to leave it there. There's no harm in it after all.

"That," he says, his interest piqued, "does sound useful."

And not just because he wants to try it on Anakin.

"And you think you could teach it to an old Jedi like myself?"

(He's not forty.)

[last_kallig]

Ibani chuckles. "You're hardly old, but yes, I believe I can."

She ponders. "Hm. Maybe if I try to build one slowly and you observe?" she offers. She doesn't mean 'observe' with the strictly standard human senses, but since not everyone 'feels' the Force the same way it is difficult to describe.

[acertainpov]

"I think I'd prefer that than you throwing a shield under me while we spar."

But - only just if we're honest. The other option sounds fun.

[last_kallig]

Ibani grins. "An option for lesson two, maybe," she teases.

"It's been a while since I've tried to do this slowly, so...." Her gaze becomes slightly unfocused as she switches to senses only tangentially related to sight.

The process is slightly like picking up an object with a force, except that what's being moved is energy as opposed to a physical object. The energy gets shaped, pushed out into a sphere. As the shield becomes tangible, it takes on a purplish hue, although it is still transparent.

[acertainpov]

Obi-Wan stills, breathing steadily as he reaches out to feel what she's doing as she does it. He can feel it, it's true, and he's known his comrades to do similar, but not with this level of control.

He doesn't attempt anything yet. He keeps his eyes and mind open, and moves his hand - the one that had been gently touching Ibani's, to come, palm flat towards her sphere.

[last_kallig]

When he touches it, it feels like a technologically created force-field, resisting his hand enough that he can 'rest' his hand on it.

Ibani smiles softly at him, and moves one of her hands to be on the opposite side of his on the shield. She sends a tiny pulse of power into the shield where their hands are, to give a better sense of how its made through 'vibration' in the Force.

[acertainpov]

His eyes flick up, meet her and his smile matches her, soft, understanding and full of respect. Resting his habnd gently he returns the power, to get a send of how it reacts, what it means.

The control is astonishing

[last_kallig]

Ibani actually flushes slightly at the feeling of respect, pleased. She doesn't get respect for her skill often, if only because it is not safe to show it. (Or the people who were witness to it are rather, er, dead.)

The feedback he's getting doesn't translate well to the standard human senses, but the more he pokes it, the more he'll learn.

"This configuration is the most useful to start with," she explains. "You can alter it to prevent even air from getting through, but then you run the risk of nearly suffocating yourself if you hold it up too long." Yes, she had that happen once, it was embarrassing.

[acertainpov]

"I'll try and bear that in mind," dryly. After all, it wouldn't do to go suffocating oneself.

The respect doesn't go away. She's earned it after all.

After a few more moments he closes his hand and withdraws it, every movement slow and deliberate. He takes his focuse away from her sphere, and feels around the Force until he's comfortable pushing at it himself.

It will take many hours of practice before he can make a sphere like hers, but he's just working on the feeling himself. Pushing on the Force itself, rather than objects.

[last_kallig]

Ibani grins at his dry reply and takes her own shield down, just in case it might interfere with the energy he's trying to move around.

"It took me quite a while to learn the technique, and even longer to do it quickly, but it's been extremely useful."

Hopefully it will help him stay safe! There aren't many friendly people in her life, so she clings to them rather fiercely.

There's a feeling of encouragement from Ibani in the Force the first time he 'pushes' in the correct way, rather than words. Hopefully less distracting than speech would be.

[acertainpov]

"I can see where it would be."

'Stay safe' is a difficult concept when it's Obi-Wan Kenobi. 'Not die from his own pigheadedness,' is probably the best she can hope for.

She's right though, speaking is distracting, but part of him can't help it, even now.

His difficulty, as always, is to focus on the physical sensation of the Force itself. Obi-Wan was always stronger on the more emotive side of the Force. Ask him to calm a bantha stampede? Easy. Actually create physical force fields?

After a while, he grins, self deprecatingly. "I can see this will take some practice."

[last_kallig]

"This place is good for that. I could help you work on it more later, if you'd like?"

A flicker of uncertainty in the Force as to how that will be taken by Obi-Wan.

"I'm not in a hurry to go back through the door right now," she adds, tone dry. There's another flicker in the Force, this one of remembered horror and fear as the memory of Darth Zash's attempt to rip her soul out of her body bobs to the surface of her thoughts, unwelcome.

[acertainpov]

"I would like that."

He would! He likes spending time with people, and honestly, he's not in any hurry to go and rejoin the war himself.

(He will, when the sense of responsibility tells him to. But he'll take the time he's given.)

"And in return, I could exchange some of my own Jedi training. Even for a Sith, control of your emotions could come in useful."

[last_kallig]

"I'm quite good at emotional control, when I'm not recovering from nearly having my soul ripped out of my body," Ibani replies, "but extra training never hurts."

"We say 'Ride or be ridden'," she continues. "Learn to use your emotions, control them, or they'll use you. Especially when you're tapping into the Dark Side."

[acertainpov]

The key there is 'when I'm not.' You have to repress them all the time, Ibani, which is what Obi-Wan keeps telling Anakin.

"Well, that's one of the reasons Jedi these days try not ot do that."

Tap into the dark side, that is.

[last_kallig]

From Ibani's point of view, repressing emotions is just a waste of potential power! Also, futile, because you will eventually fail and have to DEAL WITH THEM. Possibly this is why when Jedi Fall they tend to Fall hard enough to leave impact craters?

"It's more effective at certain tasks, but you can get by without it," Ibani replies. "Well, not with force lightning, but everything else seems to work without tapping the Dark Side."

[acertainpov]

"So I don't use Force Lightning," Obi-Wan seems to think this is no great loss. "It looks messy, anyway."

[last_kallig]

"Not as much as you'd think, and it does have applications that don't involve hurting people." Ibani shrugs. "I have something of a knack with it, which is why I was discovered by the Sith." She was using it to kill the man who murdered her mother.

"So far as I know, I'm the only Sith who's discovered that you can use positive emotions to call upon the Light side of the Force instead of using negative emotions to call upon the Dark.

[acertainpov]

"Tell me more about that," Obi-Wan says calmly.

He's much more likely to understand this more emotive use of the Force than be able to master the Force Shield - although he'll definitely be trying that.

[last_kallig]

Ibani tries to think about how to explain. "I'm not sure where to start. I can't remember a time I wasn't aware of the Force. I didn't know what it WAS, but I could....do things, when my need was great enough, when I was terrified or in pain."

"You take the feeling, let it fill you up, burn with it, and your mind and will shape that power in the Force into the effect you want. That's how we access the Force, not through stillness, but passion. 'Through passion, I gain strength,'" Ibani intones, speaking part of the Sith Code. Her belief and her passion echo in the Force.

"The desire to protect, love, the NEED to make things BETTER, they are fire also, fire that creates rather than destroys."