all_inclusive | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Obi-Wan now suddenly understood why Anakin despised Tatooine so much. Aside from the slavery, which was rampant, the entire planet was covered in sand that seemed to get into any and everything no matter what measures one took to prevent it. Potable water was only obtained through complex vaporator systems which, inevitably, failed once the sand got into their inner workings and destroyed the delicate machinery. Obi-Wan was a decent hand at most technology but he would never be a savant the way Anakin was; as a result, his vaporators were constantly on the fritz and he was at the mercy of the mechanics in Anchorhead. They tended to gouge those who did not know better.

Obi-Wan kept to himself these days and missed the companionship once found within the halls of the Jedi temple. It pained him to think that the beautiful building no longer existed, the tenets it stood for torn asunder by the will of the newly-installed Galactic Emperor. Obi-Wan wish he'd seen it coming, had known that Palpatine meant ill by the people of Naboo and the Republic but nobody had seen it, nobody had connected the dots to lead from seemingly-unconnected Sith apprentices to their wily master. Palpatine had been very careful never to reveal any sort of Force-related powers. Even Masters Yoda and Windu had been unable to tell until it was far too late. And Anakin! Such great potential, his apprentice, but it had been twisted into fear and jealousy by Palpatine and used as a means to an end. The last thing Obi-Wan wanted was to cut him down on Mustafar and, yet, he had never been afraid to do what was necessary to protect the Order, even when the Order was essentially gone.

Which is why he chose to come to Tatooine to keep an eye out on a boy who might hold the key to the future of the entire Jedi Order in his chubby little fists. Luke Skywalker would grow up knowing the same sort of mundane existence his father had years ago and would know nothing beyond the windswept sands of Tatooine until the time came. They would keep him safe by hiding him in plain sight, in putting him on the one planet Anakin vowed never to return to. Luke would be safe here and Obi-Wan, to ensure that safety, would merely have to suffer the inconveniences of living on a backwater planet.

"At least the Empire doesn't seem remotely interested in colonizing this waste," he muttered to himself, drawing his cloak tighter as he peered out the windows. There was a sandstorm on the horizon and he needed to go cover as much as he could to keep it from being destroyed. This Force-foresaken planet was going to be the death of him, he knew it, and he hated it with every cell in his body. Still, duty trumped comfort.

"Why did it have to be sand?" he asked, wrenching the door open and stepping out into the wind. It seemed to calm as soon as he stepped into it, however, and as the sand settled there was a very different landscape before his eyes. Gone were the ancient droids and vaporators and in their place was plush carpet and fine wood, the interior of a palace or a temple and not the jagged rock of the Jundland Wastes. Obi-Wan peered back through the door to see his own meager home, the secondhand furniture and worn clothes, and decided that this new place bore further investigation.

If nothing else, it would be interesting and he hadn't had much in the way of excitement since arriving on Tatooine some months ago. It would be worth it simply to entertain himself for a few hours, wouldn't it?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Olaf has started to get a little alarm bell in the back of his head that took pleasure in going off whenever someone new was arriving. Maybe it's his oracle senses adapting, or maybe it's just that he's becoming accustomed to life here. It's probably a sign he's spending too much time here, but ah well. "Morning," he lazily greets, raising a hand to wave at the bloke. "You coming or going?"

"Arriving, it seems," Obi-Wan said brightly enough. The best way to hide was to hide in plain sight and to act like everything was normal; people did not normally look past that veil to see anything beneath the surface.

"And yourself?"

Olaf waves a hand to the general air around him, peering through the haze of new thoughts and worlds this man has brought, barely able to see through it, it's so dense. "Existing on a natural plane of enjoyment," he says, blinking when he sniffs and feels hungrier than ever before. "Shit. Arriving," he says, pointing at him. "It's your first time, isn't it?"

"First through here, yes," Obi-Wan confirmed. "Of course, that does beg the question of exactly where here is."

Perhaps it was some manifestation of the Force that he had never seen before, some new way to interact with the world.

"Where is a concept much discussed and often disagreed upon," Olaf replies, which is a very long way to say that he does not actually understand or know where they are. "You should be asking what this place can do for you. And the answer is so very much, and for nothing at all," he replies cheerfully. "Smoke?" he offers, digging out a cigarette.

"No thank you," Obi-Wan said, waving it off. He had never liked intoxicating substances as it seemed to dull his connection with the Force. Qui-Gon had been less rigid on those things but, then again, Qui-Gon had been less rigid about most things - leading to many of their arguments when he'd been alive.

"What can this place do for me, then? Inquiring minds want to know."

Olaf shrugs, still riding that blissful little high that comes of his incredible drugs that Bali is so talented with. "Mostly, it offers rent-free accommodations," he says, gesturing to the rich curtains and the carpets and the ceilings and everything around them. "Is yours the inquiring mind?"

"Upon occasion," Obi-Wan said. The idea of living somewhere without expenses was not entirely new to Obi-Wan. He had, after all, been a ward of the Jedi Temple for most of his life and was quite used to never having to worry about credits or shelter or food. His experiences on Tatooine were new and a little frightening and he mostly kept to himself; living modestly was a necessity.

"Is this an Imperial recognized planet?" Best to get the unpleasantries out of the way.

Olaf had lived through most of the seventies and the eighties completely stoned off his rocker. Honestly, he probably wouldn't recognize any of that stuff were it not for Axl and the Zeb shaped thing he wandered around with, but 'Imperial recognized planet' sounded like something in their wheelhouse. He blinks and sits forward, thinking about oranges and swords and blindfolds and it becomes clear to him.

"Like, a planet of Imperial things?" he echoes, because memories and being an Oracle only goes so far. "I'm pretty sure it's a hotel," he supplies helpfully.

"The Galactic Empire does not have a presence here?" Obi-Wan asked again, wanting to be certain. If the Imperials were on this particular planet, he would have to tread lightly. Otherwise, it seemed this place might be even safer for him as a Jedi than Tatooine was and, apparently, a lot more hospitable. The accommodations in this hotel were much more to his liking than the hut he had on the edge of the Jundland Wastes.

Olaf blinks. Then he blinks again, all the while his brain is processing this information as quickly as it possibly can. He isn't really understanding these words, but the truth is that Olaf has a bad habit of not understanding most words, sometimes. "It's a hotel," he repeats again, a bit slower both for this man's understanding and for his own. "If it's an empire, I missed that memo."

Obi-Wan would have liked a confirmed negative but he guessed this was as good as he might get. He tucked his hands in the sleeves of his robe, an old nervous habit he had carried with him from the creche.

"Hopefully the Imperials are just as in the dark about us as you are about them," he said, chuckling a little. "Otherwise, I may have to make a run for it. I'm a bit of an outlaw."

"Congratulations," Olaf coughs past the smoke in front of his face. He waves it away, blinking through the blissful haze that manages to climb above the godhood and make him feel incandescently amazing. "I doubt you'll get chased here," he admits. "It's fairly safe. I haven't even seen a police officer, otherwise I'd probably be locked up."

If that held true, Obi-Wan may have found the only planet in the known galaxy that he could relax on. For the moment, he was going to err on the side of caution but eventually, he might be able to let his guard down.

"Locked up for what, exactly? Your smoking? That hardly seems illicit."

The smoking, the drugs, the dealing, the various other mild and minor indiscretions that aren't entirely so small, but Olaf knows well enough not to start confessing. Just because he hasn't been banged up yet doesn't mean it won't happen. "General things," he says passively. He stubs out his joint, tucking it behind his ear so he can extend out a hand. "I'm Olaf," he introduces himself. "Apparently acting as welcome wagon today."

"Ben," he offered in kind, warm and friendly in a way he hadn't been since before the Temple had been sacked. Perhaps this really was a safe place to lay low for a little while.

"What kind of government is in place here, if not Imperial?"

Olaf coughs slightly, taken aback by the idea that he actually looks like someone who would have even the vaguest idea as to what sort of government runs a hotel on a rock in space. "Uh," he manages, when he finally gets his wits vaguely about him again (which isn't entirely all of him). "I'm not sure? I mean, I see a valet wandering around once in a while, but it's not like anyone carries around a crown and scepter to let you know who's in charge."

"No, that would be too convenient," Obi-Wan said, mostly to himself. This place would have to be approached with some caution until he determined that it was actually safe but then, maybe, it could be somewhere that he could hide long term.

"So who does wander around here on a regular basis?"

"Me, for one," Olaf replies cheerfully, with the joy of a man who's made a little home out of this hotel, even though it's hardly like he's contributed much to it apart from the random deal he's brokered in back rooms. He does like to imagine he brings a very positive aura to the whole experience.

Not that any CV would be looking for a statement like that. "You meet all sorts, though. Couple vampires, bunch of ragtag kids from some kind of wasteland. You know, the usual weird crowd a place like this can draw."

"Vampires? What on Coruscant is a vampire?" Obi-Wan had a decent grasp on xenobiology from his Temple studies but vampire wasn't something he had ever come across in either his studies or out in the field as a Jedi. Before introducing Luke to such a place, he needed to be sure it was safe and easily secured against any perceived threats.

Olaf makes fangs with his pinkies, curling his upper lip, and trying to do a good impression. "Vampires," he says, past the impression. "You know? Blood sucking things that are vampires and..." Olaf gives him a curious look. "You've never come across a vampire before? Not in books or movies?"

"No, I can't say I have. How do these lifeforms appear?" Quadripeds that sucked blood might not be unheard of but Obi-Wan was unaware of any humanoid lifeform with that particular description.

"Well, they walk through doors," Olaf replies, a bit stunned by the question, feeling like maybe he's not answering right when he gives the obvious response. He eyes the other man warily. "You're not from around here, are you?" he asks knowingly, which is something that anyone else might have picked up on instantly.

"I am from that door," Obi-Wan said, pointing carefully at the door that led back to Tatooine. If he had his way, he would never wander back through it again but duty trumped comfort every time. Even if the duty involved waiting in the desert for an indeterminate amount of time.

"So, yes. I am not from here."

"I'm not entirely sure where that door goes," Olaf says, even when he's given a direction. "This might work better if you talk to me as if I'm an idiot," he says, which isn't too far off from the truth. "Where you're from, who you are, why you don't know about vampires...?"

"I currently reside on Tatooine, which is a backwater planet that is barely fit for habitation," Obi-Wan clarified. There was no sense in relating to anyone that he was actually from Corsuscant because that would bring up more questions that he did not want to supply the answers to. It was better for everyone involved if he was merely Ben from Tatooine because Ben from Tatooine wasn't currently on the Imperial kill list.

Wait. He does know this.

This is something Axl and Zeb talk about, all the time, that movies. No, he knows it too. He'd seen it during the seventies and the eighties, though he had been on a great deal of drugs at the time, so the fact that he can even remember vague details is something. "An Imperial planet?" Olaf verifies.

"Quite a lot of them in most systems but they haven't bothered with Tatooine," Obi-Wan said, watching the man carefully for any signs of recognition. The last thing he wanted was to be singled out as a Jedi survivor and turned over for a bounty.

"It's too remote. Too far out of the way. And entirely too much sand to be bothered."

"I like sand," Olaf says pleasantly, happy to find a thread in that topic that he understands. "Good sand makes for good surf," he says with a nod of his head knowingly. "Do you surf?"

"Surf? No, I can't say that I do," Obi-Wan said, trying to decide what surfing might entail. If it involved sand, he wasn't entirely sure he was interested.

"How does it involve sand, though? Seems unpleasant, sand gets everywhere."

"Well, it does," Olaf agrees. "It's less that you have to worry about the sand and more you have to accept it as a part of surfing." He takes one last deep inhale of his joint and stubs it out, getting to his feet. "Come on, if you're new here, I can give you a tour. Maybe we can even find you a room to lie your head down once you get tired of worrying about these Imperial blokes."

"That sounds like the best thing I've heard all day," he agreed. "Because laying low is definitely my aim in staying here, the last thing I want to do is attract any undue attention."

At least if he does draw any attention, it will be under the name Ben and not his birth name.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only