[semi-open] I will be your shining light

[provenforce]

WHO: Rey, Obi-Wan, open
WHAT: a reunion, and open
WHEN: after the rifters get to Kirkwall, and throughout Cloudreach.
WHERE: the docks, the Gallows
NOTES: will add if they become relevant

The Docks - Obi-Wan

Rey is tired after the trip to Orlais and looking forward to taking a bath and sleeping in her own bed for a change. But she can't help opening her senses as she disembarks, feeling out the Force, looking for Ben. What she doesn't expect is to sense someone else, someone she had grimly accepted she would never feel again.

She stops where she stands, Padawan looking at her quizzically as she freezes, trying to zero in on where he is. Obi-Wan.

When she determines the direction she takes off running down the docks, the Force guiding her. She catches sight of him and pushes herself faster, even as her vision blurs from tears welling in her eyes. She doesn't slow down until she crashes into him, throwing her arms around him with a sob. She's been so unsure of so much lately, but she can't help the profound relief washing over her as she feels the presence of her master once again.

Open - Training yard

She's back to one lightsaber, not that she minds. It's easier to control one than two, and she's more comfortable this way. The lightsaber that she had come to think of as hers in her hand, her first line of defense against demons and whatever else stands in her way.

For the moment she's running through her forms, things she learned under Obi-Wan, and a few she'd improvised, modified from Kylo Ren's fighting style. She holds the ignited saber in front of her, sweeping it in a slow arc, pacing her breathing, before speeding up, taking herself through motions she's practiced what feels like a thousand times, now.

Her chosen training spot is a little out of the way, but the low hum of the saber usually attracts some attention.

Open - Rey's Workshop

Often in the evenings, unless Rey is working on something or wanting private time, she'll leave the door to her room open so that Padawan can come and go, and so that others who might need her services can pop in. Or just so friends can pop in. The usual organized chaos of her room stands regardless of the day, and she is usually sitting at her desk, bent over something or another.

Her current project is another series of mini trebuchets that can be used in the obstacle course, and they sit around her desk in a varied state of disarray, some fully constructed, others waiting to be finished. She will look up when someone walks in, and if it's someone she doesn't recognize her tools will go down and she'll stand, asking who they are. If it's a friend they'll just get a smile and a wave as Rey finishes whatever she's in the middle of doing. She can talk and tinker, she's good at multitasking.

Comments

[provenforce]

This is such a weird topic of conversation, Rey doesn't entirely know how to have it. She bites the inside of her lip, looking anywhere but Nari, like she might spot something that will change the subject.

"We still have our differences. More... we're trying to put them aside." She sighs, a little reluctantly. She and Ben had agreed they weren't going to keep a secret of their involvement with one-another, of course, but it's very different, deciding something and actually talking about it.

"There might have been lips involved in that decision."

[nadasharillen]

Sensing Rey's discomfort and watching her gaze dart around, Nari looks immediately and wholly apologetic for having been ribbing her-- after all, being confused about the subject and on the receiving end of such things had certainly felt strange and a little discomfiting.

She's about to apologize and go back to talking about more comfortable topics like massive weapons of war when Rey mentions lip-related decisions and she perks right back up. She does, however, wave her hands in an attempt to reassure the other woman that she oughtn't feel pressured to continue. "Oh-- I-- that's all entirely your business. I don't mean to pry."

That doesn't mean the elf doesn't look a little hopeful that Rey will continue. (After all, she's been wondering about these types of things.)

[provenforce]

Rey lets out a small laugh, shaking her head.

"No I-- This is what normal girl friends do, isn't it? Talk about boys and kissing and... all those things that I have no idea about because I've never had someone to talk about with friends before. Or friends, really." Which was a little less true now than it would have been a year ago, but the part about never having a boy to talk about to her friends was absolutely true. She doesn't even know what she's doing with him half the time.

[nadasharillen]

"I'm glad," says Nari, her expression relaxing. It quickly turns sheepish, though, her hand raising to run back through her hair. "That you consider me a friend, not that you didn't have friends. Or have someone to talk to them about."

She's good at this too; the hesitance at the corner of her smile is enough to speak to that. "From what I've seen, he seems..." A study in contradictions. Half calm, half wild, tightly controlled, but prone to bursts of feeling. "...difficult," she finishes with a quiet half-smile, the word spoken in her mind by a different voice than her own. "But a good man. Not the type who'll often be judged correctly the first time."

"I suspect you know him better than most," she says. "Do you think he'd be cross if you told me who you know him to be? That is, if you'd like."

[provenforce]

Rey relaxes a little as Nari relaxes, kind of liking this feeling. She's spoken to others she considers friends about different things, this is a new topic. She lets out a small laugh as Nari describes Ben as 'difficult' because that is absolutely true. She also appreciates that Nari seems to realize there's more to him than just what you see at first.

"He might be. But he also thinks that I believe in him more than he deserves. There is good in him, though. There always has been, he's just been fighting it for years because that's how he had to survive." It breaks her heart, thinking about the time he spent with Snoke, how easily that could have been prevented, if Luke had never gone to his tent that night.

[nadasharillen]

"Needing to survive... that makes you do all kinds of things," Nari says quietly with a small nod, pressing her lips to a line. "Opens doors in you you didn't know you had. Ones that are hard to shut. Do it long enough, and you forget there's more to life than that. To you than that." She suspects Rey knows what she's talking about. The young woman had the kind of resourcefulness with the meanest of things that only really comes from needing it. "I'm glad he has you to remind him of those things."

[provenforce]

She does know well about having to do hard things to survive. Rey lived a life that wasn't an easy one, and maybe that's why she's done so well here. Because she's used to living harder than some others in the galaxy. Ben's transition hasn't been quite so smooth, but he's getting there. Smiling a little at Nari, she nods her head.

"I have him, too. We balance each other."

[nadasharillen]

Balance. That's a nice way to think about it. With that as the sought after ideal, even vast gulf-like differences needn't be insurmountable. They could simply be let to be. The odd comfort Nari takes from Rey's phrasing is obvious on her face as she tilts her head in acknowledgement.

"That sounds... peaceful," she says. "There's precious little of that to go around here."