| abstract | - She needed a break from the Basilica. A break from the news reports of the space battle. Just.... a break. Her idle walking takes her into the lower regions of Coruscant. Levels where the sunlight has to fight just to get a few rays to shine upon the structures here. Well, no chance in having to see the battle above.... if it's still going on. She stops in front of a boarded up store and looks to it curiously. Lack of business or... fear of staying? What made them give up? At length, as Ai'kani Za'netra makes her way through the deep streets, passing through long shadows, a form limps from across the way, wearing tattered rags and emerging from even lower areas of the city. It is an elderly woman, her eyes sunken and her mouth a flat mush of skin where once teeth were set. Over her head is a prtective covering, and she makes her way slowly towards Ai'kani, eerily gazing at the woman as she limps closer and closer. The young woman turns her head to regard the presence approaching her. Her eyes sink slightly at the sight. Is that what they're doomed to become? Wrinkled, fragile forms of the youth they once possessed? Feeble. Helpless. No. This woman is a tome of survival; the pages written all over her bent and mishapen body. "Greetings, respected woman," Ai'kani nods; turning her body to face the approacher. "Can I help you?" The ancient woman hobbles up to Ai'kani and cranes her head upwards painfully - smacking her lips as she prepares to speak.. "Yeshh missy.. a meshage, froms below my dear." She slowly turns and extends a gnarled old hand and finger, pointing into the depths of the Abyssal Ruins, the shadows of which any intellegent traveller would not explore unless nessesity calls. "Where awaitsh you the Twi'lek, I wash told to say.. " and the woman shakes her head and mumbles something about 'his eyes'.. the woman looks hopefully up at Ai'kani forcing a distordedly pleasant expression onto her wrinkled face, "shpare a bit o money for an old woman, my dear?" Ai'kani moves herself upon one knee and reaches out to the woman to alight a hand upon her shoulder. Listening to the message wordlessly, Ai'kani looks towards the direction that had been indicated. A place where even sunlight cannot touch. Only reflected light from above reaches its depths. Pondering this for a moment, she looks back to the woman and takes her crippled hand. Placing on her palm, Ai'kani sets some credits and closes her fingers around it. "Go to the city," she instructs. "Turn left---" she squeezes the woman's left hand to show which direction just in case the woman doesn't know the different "--and enter the first building you see. It's a shelter. They can take care of you there. Give them these credits and you will be safe." She stands. "Thank you for the message." Patting the woman's shoulder, Ai'kani begins to walk towards the indicated direction. Abyssal Ruins -- Nether Layers: Coruscant It is dark here. Any natural sunlight from the world above has long since been blocked out by the levels and levels of city above this place. Intermittent lights from windows or the few streetlights that still work shed light on the potholed street. Carbon scoring marks many walls, a sign that muggings and crime is rampant here. What is that smell? The undercity has long since been forgotten by the Coruscant sanitation department, and litter thrown over the edges of higher levels flutters down, gathering in piles to be scavenged by the creatures that dwell here. Indeed, most departments of the Coruscanti government have long since abandoned the undercity, including law enforcement. The beings live in darkness here like animals, with no laws, struggling to make a life in this cold, dark place. As the young woman descends further and further into Coruscant's depths she becomes witness to the desolation that is the Abbysal Ruins. The stench of the place becomes more and more apparent as she goes, and it becomes darker and darker. She can hear the sounds of beings moving around and shouting at one another, or animals snarling around corners, eating trash. One scene involves homeless men huddled alseep in the shadows. She would have missed them entirely if her attention had not been snapped there by the event of a full cup of some liquid and a paper bag did not fall from the sky and land there with a splat. A few children emerge from deeper shadows to investigate the fallen trash for food. Somewhere in the distance a blaster discharges and something screams. The buzzing of insects around trash heaps is oddly noisy. The woman narrows her eyes slightly. She knows what this twi'lek is trying to do. What point he's trying to prove. It'll be a harsh reality to him when the day comes he discovers what world she truly comes from. Passing the desolation, Ai'kani has the fingers of the Force weaving through the air seeking the man's presence. However, she doesn't try too hard. He called for her; he will show. A voice echoes through the darkness, off walls and through the ruins, "People of the undercity! We are saved! For behold a servant of life and freedom has finally arrived to take notice of your suffering!" Using the force, Ai'kani can tell that Tyy'sun is near, and that the voice is his.. his laughter follows afterwards, "People of the undercity! rejoice!" There is not much of a community response to the echoing words and laughter, which mixes in with the other myriad sounds of the place.. but it is loud enough to be heard by anyone within a city block or so. Ai'kani stops and looks around, her teeth gritting. "Your games grow tiresome, Eson. You mock what you do not understand. You cannot comprehend the world from which I have crawled. You do not respect the strife. You only compare. You look for reasons to say your life is the worst. That you overcome the most. You are afraid. Scared that I know far more about you than you do of me." She looks around in the darkness; her senses blazing now. "Did you call me here only to attempt to boost your own insecurities, Eson?" The laughter returns, echoing throughout, "So sorry to waist your prescious time, savior! You have told me of your past - but you ahve also told me not to forget mine!" the sound of something clanging and banging in the distance.. the voice echoes so much, but it almost sounds like it scoming from slightly above. "Look opon what your world rests on! Your foundation is the grime and filth of those you leave behind!" Some of the occupants are stirring from the ruckus. Ai'kani's presence here is noticed by a few beings scampering through a near by alley. Shadows move off to the side. Life is evident in the force.. "The world above is where I merely reside. It is not where I thrive. It is not /my/ world. No world is my world. No world belongs to anyone." She can pinpoint him now. She can feel his eyes on her and his rage that brought him here. "You want to think I am the person you think I am. You want so badly to assume I am some huge success and that I am not aware of the struggle going on. You think your little attempts at reality will break my confidence that there is still hope in this world." This time, it is her that laughs. "Eson. Has it come to this? Have those questions been burning in your brain." She pauses and frowns. "You have done something very terrible to another living being, haven't you? Are you feeling, yet, the guilt? The second-guessing? Or perhaps your own Master has his insecurities about you. About me." From the direction of Eson comes the sound of blaster fire. If it is Eson's blaster, Ai'kani can believe it, fore she can sense his momentary distress before hearing the gun.. from the sides the shadows move, and out comes a pair of young men wearing tattered clothing and holding weapons. The dark skinned youth glares at the young woman with a downcast gaze, brandishing a worker's iron. The light skinned youth has an old hold out blaster which appears to be ancient. "Ye'll give us yer credits woman." comes the command from the light skinned man. Tyy'sun's laughter returns from the same position as before. Ai'kani turns towards the disturbance sharply; her eyes resting on the youths. Tilting her head slightly, she studies the two. Were they connected to Eson? Or are they acting on their own and taking advantange of the situation? She puts up no fight. She says nothing to them in return. What are a few credits in comparison to sparing them all pain and torment? Reaching into her robes, the woman slowly and calmly pulls out what credits she has left and tosses them underhandedly towards the two. The credits land at their feet with a clatter and she stands with her arms laxed to her sides. The dark skinned youth smirks and kneels down to gather up the credits, but the light skinned man steps forward, the gun still pointed at Ai'kani, "And now yer robes." Eson's voice has stopped echoing, though there is some clanging in the distance. The dark skinned man looks around and says nervously, "Cmon man.. lets dip." But the light skinned man continues approaching Ai'kani, his expression sinister.. "Yer robes!" he spits again. The woman only shakes her head. "I am sorry," she replies gently. "I cannot give you these robes." The answer is simply enough and quite final. The robes stay with her. Lifting her eyes, the woman looks straight at Eson. Though, she cannot see him; she knows where he is now. "Has it come to this, Eson," she asks again. Eson is not where she thought he was.. instead she vaguely senses his signal flanking through the undercity block, coming around behind the youths who brandish their weapons. The light skinned youth shugs and pulls the trigger, the blaster bolt snapping off and towards the woman, barely missing her and slicing into a nearby wall with a shower of sparks! The youth looks frustrated with the small weapon and growls reaching up to grab it with his other hand and fiddle with it desperately. The dark skinned youth just curses and charges toward the woman, raising the worker's iron high with a cry of determination. They are sickly youths, their poor health as evident as the bones throughout their skinny bodies - but the weapons are real enough! The bolt flies past Ai'kani without so much as a flinch from her. She could sense the aim was off. Maybe even the uncertainty of the youths. Afterall, they are rather young. Watching the dark-skinned boy crying out and approaching her violently, the woman's hand snaps out at the last moment to catch the boy's wrist; the weapon just above her head. "Are my robes worth this? You have all the credits I carry." Her eyes deep on him as she has the boy this close. "Turn. Walk away from this. You are young. There is still time." The dark skinned youth's eyes go wide at the ease with which Ai'kani controls his arm.. he begins pulling away from her grasp sharply, and lets go of the iron which topples off of the top of the woman's head painfully. The youth with the gun curses as he realizes its jammed beyond his ability to fix and instead rushes forward, grabbing his friend and helping pull him away.. if Ai'kani lets go of him, they both run down the street just as Tyy'sun emerges from the same shadowy alley the would be muggers originated from.. he claps his hands lightly in applause, his eyes flashing an intense blue/gray int he darkness, the smell of spice wafting around and mixing with the smell of trash along with the Twi'lek's presense. The iron is, indeed, the X factor. She could've disabled the boy before he could release it, but that would've required hurting him. So, the white-haired woman takes tbe blow brought on by gravity. Releasing the boy's wrist, Ai'kani falls to a knee and puts a hand on her head as her fingers curl against her scalp in pain. Thankfully, the boys run off. Probably not to better themselves, but at least no harm will come to them... for now. To Tyy'sun's approach, the woman lifts her intense eyes and looks to him. She says nothing, however, as she is focusing her energy on the intense pain in her head... and the blood she can feel from a cut upon it. The pounding it loud. Almost deafening. "How awfull." The Twi'lek tsks, "To think that these hulligans would attack a friend such as you. Ungreatful rats.. why dont they understand that you are just trying to help?" He stands calmly in the entrance of the shadowy alley, observing Ai'kani - confident the woman is not harmed beyond her coping ability. His left hand hoves near his blaster, but does not go for the weapon - he himself seems to have no foul intentions where the woman is concerned.. however, she may notice a smattering of blood on the hem of his preter longcoat. "It is unfortunate," she replies with a grit in her teeth. The pain is intense, but she continues to focus on it. She continues to study him for a moment before forcing herself to her feet. "To think that of all our meetings, this has to be the form you function so well in. Where you open up the most. If this be your comfort, then I stand within it." She staggers for a moment, grunting to the pain. Damned iron. "To think that all you see of me is my good nature and my robes. Your stereotyping has blinded you. You want to understand me without looking into me. Afraif of what you'll find. But I've seen inside you, Eson. I know who you are... and that terrifies you." Could just be all talk. Tyy'sun laughs again, this time louder now that he stands right in front of the woman.. "Ohhh My dear Ai'kani! You, who know me as a book laid bare to read!" he reaches up and strips off the preter longcoat which falls to the grimy concrete behind him. Bare armed and vested Tyy begins to dance as he laughs, twirling and flowing gracefully as only a Twi'lek can.. he is no female performer, but his grace cannot be denied, "So keen - so noble, to not cuase harm you chose to bleed!" he Rhymes as he goes, lekku twitching and curling outwards, also a part of the dance. "You charge me with such eViL deeds!" a reference to her previous accusal of his guilt.. The woman looks away and closes her eyes. Going back to her knee, Ai'kani bows her head. Pain... ow. Curling her fingers harder against her head, the woman listens to the man. The imbalanced man is enough to convince her his own mind is gone. Disconnected from reality. With another stagger, the woman rises to her feet and nods. "Indeed. So concerned for life, I forget my own," she affirms before beginning her slow trek towards the way she had come. Tyy'sun singing and laughter can be heard growing more and more distant as Ai'kani makes her way out of the Abbysal Ruins.. soon she is back above, where the air is fresh and the darkness gives way to the light of Coruscant's sun.. so much for escaping stressful moments with a walk.
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