Endings and Beginnins

[Ibby]

[member="Mit Tuxaire"]

Ibelia walked close to her parents, gripping her stuffed tauntaun. The young girl held on tightly to her mother's hand, looking at everything with wide-eyed wonder. It was rare for her parents to take her planet-side, moreso on such a heavily-populated planet as Coruscant.

But today was a special day. The Zabrak's parents had recently made a very successful sell, and wanted to celebrate by buying a few more nice things for their ship. After many, many constant pleadings, though, Ibby's parents had finally let her come down with them.

"But you need to stay close, understand?" her father had said sternly, just before they left.

Ibby had nodded her head eagerly. She couldn't wait! "Of course, Papa. I won't leave you guys!"


Her mother looked down at the child, patting her little horned head affectionately. "Don't worry, we're almost there."

"Where are we going, Mama?" Ibby asked absently. A brightly-colored alien across the street from them had caught her attention and the child was studing it, mesmerised. There was so much variety here.

"To a store that has everything imaginable," her father rumbled. He followed the girl's line of sight. "Don't stare, Ibby. It's rude."

The girl ducked her head. "Sorry, Papa." After many more minutes of walking, the Zabraki family finally stopped in front of the store. Eyes wide with wonder, Ibby followed her parents into the establishment.

 

[lordmitmar]

[member="Ibelia Sitos"]

Mit studied the seemingly endless line of shelves, arguing with himself on where to start looking.

He was here for one reason, and one reason only. This place had everything. He needed a huge assortment of items today, and this was the only place he could think of that he knew had most, if not all of them.

"I hate to be a bother..." he said as he approached one of the stores many workers. "But, where are the weapons in this place?"

"Right this way." the man said, and motioned for Mit to follow him.

Mit took a glance of a family walking in, it was a nice place sure, but not really a place for kids...

 

[Ibby]

[member="Mit Tuxaire"]

Ibby looked in awe at all of the different things that the place had while her parents discussed which needed items were of a higher priority.

"...but we need new tableclothes."

"True, but it wouldn't hurt to update our engines, either..."

Tuning them out, Ibby tore her gaze away from the items long enough to glimpse a pale being with white hair and golden eyes. The child, intrigued by such fascinating features, nearly forgot her father's previous reprimand. Nearly. She tore her gaze away from the man and instead saw an equally interesting, flashing object. Her first impulse was to immediately go over there, but she remembered her father's order. It's only a store, she thought. What could go wrong?

Ibby tugged on her mother's arm. "Mama, I'm going to go look over here with Fluffy," she said. Her mother gave an absent reply, which the girl interpreted as an affirmative. Hugging Fluffy the tauntaun tightly, the Zabrak walked over to study the object, not even paying attention to what was going on at the entrance.

 

[lordmitmar]

[member="Ibelia Sitos"]
"Its nice, but not really what i'm looking for... Do you have any knifes?" Mit was still chatting with the store worker -owner rather- as Mit had found out.

"Yes, right this way." The owner walked directly past the family Mit had seen come in, the younger one was no where to be seen. 'Really? They just let the kid run around like that?' Mit thought, clearly not paying attention to where he was going. He nearly tripped over a pile of parts that had been left alone, and spotted the kid again, standing next to an active blaster.

"Idiots..." he muttered, he kept watching but he kept an eye on the kid.

 

[Ibby]

[member="Mit Tuxaire"]

OOC: xD Man, you really don't like her parents, do you?


IC:

Ibby whirled around at the sound of something clattering. The Zabrak saw that the noise had been caused by the pale man, who'd nearly tripped over some items. She blinked when she realized he was watching her.

Blushing, the girl ducked behind a display case. He didn't look dangerous, just...curious. Nonetheless, Ibby tentatively poked her head out, peeping back at him before looking for her parents. They were still talking nearby, though it wasn't evident if they were close to finishing. I hope we don't have to leave, the girl thought. Ibby's mother stopped briefly, glancing around the viscinity. The young Zabrak caught her mother's attention, and she relaxed before returning to the conversation.

After assuring her parents that she hadn't run off, Ibby turned to look at Fluffy. "Who do you think that man is?" she asked the animal. But he had no response. Furrowing her brows slightly, the girl stole another peek at the pale-skinned stranger.

 

[lordmitmar]

[member="Ibelia Sitos"]
(ooc: sorry about the wait, got sick, got better, thought I posted, forgot about thread... the usual ^^)

Mit looked away from the family and knelt down, digging through the shelves, looking for anything that could be of use. There was an obvious commotion starting to break out, and Mit glanced out one of the stores many windows, there was a large group of people -shady looking people- apparently arguing with a security guard. 'Slum dwellers, the lot of them.' he thought, and went back to shoving crates of useless metals out of the way.

 

[Ibby]

[member="Mit Tuxaire"]

OOC: Haha don't worry, it happens to the best of us xD

IC:

One minute, Ibelia was watching the strange man, holding Fluffy close to her. The next minute, pandemonium filled the store. There was shouting, and the sound of shots firing out. The girl let out a scream as a blaster bolt hit the display in front of her. She looked around wildly for her parents, but all she saw were a couple of official-looking persons frantically trying to stop a huge group of beings. The mean-looking people were the ones causing most of the panic, breaking displays and taking anything of value.

The Zabrak darted away from where she was, her small body weaving through the crowd of panicked shoppers. "Mama! Papa! Where are you?" Her eyes were wide with terror as she struggled to locate her parents. She didn't understand, why wouldn't these people just buy what they need? Why did they have to steal? To -- she shuddered at the thought -- to kill?

She still couldn't find her parents. Where were they? Why can't I find them? The girl's movements were becoming more frantic and the fear increased with the chaos. "Mama! Papa!"

 

[lordmitmar]

[member="Ibelia Sitos"]

(Im not even going to try to make an excuse... School caught up to me, and yeah.)

It was rummaging through a pile of parts when the shooting began. 'Here to?' he thought, mind racing. He couldn't think of anyone else now, it was all about survival. In a flash he was armed with his rifle, firing shot into the crowd of... bandits? Robbers? Whatever they were once, they were a bloody pile of lifeless rags now. Mit tackled another of the man and brought the but of his rifle into his skull. He was a trained killer, this was what he did, but this was different. There were civilians ghere. He shot a bandits head clean off a mere second after the man drew his blaster.

Mit, agile as a cat, climbed up a rack of shelves and jumped onto the rafters, firing shots into the crowd.

"One shot, one kill..." he murmured, eerily calm, and ended another of the bandits as it stepped out, sword in hand, to kill the girl he had seen before.

 

[Ibby]

[member="Mit Tuxaire"]

Ibelia hadn't even realized that someone was trying to kill her. Her whole focus had been on finding her parents amidst the chaos.

She jumped when another shot went off near her. The Zabrak girl would have kept going, though, were it not for the loud thud of a heavy body hitting the ground. Trembling, Ibby turned to see the body of one of the bad men lying on the ground. His hand still gripped the blade, and the spot where the bolt had hit him smoked faintly.

Eyes wide, she looked up and noticed a figure in the rafters. Is that...? She looked harder. It was! It was the man from earlier, the one with the golden eyes. From the way he was acting, Ibby guessed he was the one taking down the perps, but.... his calmness as he fired off shots made her shiver slightly.

Nonetheless, Ibelia gave him a small wave to show her gratitude for saving her, and wove her way through the crowd again. The panicked citizens were starting to thin out as they made it outside. Even so, there were still enough bodies around to make it difficult to navigate.

As she walked on, hiding from the bad men and trying to avoid being shot, the girl tripped over something. Nursing her now-bruised knee, Ibelia set Fluffy down in order to see what had tripped her -- and wish she hadn't.

Lying on the ground, immobile and side-by-side, were her parents. She sat, frozen in horror as she stared at her only family. Ibelia was now an orphan.

 

[lordmitmar]

[member="Ibelia Sitos"]
Most of the civilians had cleared out, and he felt safe dropping to the floor. It was bad luck that he landed right in front of a stray blaster bolt. The bolt had been intended for the little girl, now orphaned. The bolt deflected off of Mit's vibrosword, still attached to his waist, and ricocheted back into the man that had so confidently fired it. "Come on..." Mit said to the girl and purposefully, if not gently, lifted her to her feet, grabbed her toy, and bolted for the exit.

 

[Ibby]

[member="Mit Tuxaire"]

Ibelia was too numb from the shock of seeing her dead parents to resist the man's help. On her feet, she followed closely behind him, a blank look on her face. The girl might as well have been a droid. She just couldn't accept the fact that her family was gone. It was impossible. Her parents wouldn't leave so suddenly, not without saying goodbye, right?

She noted, as if from a distance, that the store was nearly empty of people. Bodies littered the floor -- officials, civilians, and the looters. But it didn't bother the girl -- she simply took it in, her brain too overloaded with the despair of her loss to do more than follow orders.

As they neared the exit, though, one thought broke through the fog. "M--my tauntaun....I think I...I think I left him..." she said quietly, almost absently. "I got him for my 7th birthday. His name is Mr. Flufferton, but I usually just call him Fluffy." The words burst forth like water breaking from a dam. "He's very soft and pretty and my favorite toy in the world. Mama and Papa said that he would keep me safe from nightmares. I used to have nightmares when I was little, but they stopped when they got me Fluffy. I don't think Mama and Papa would want me to leave him behind. Mister, we have to go back, we--" All of the sudden Ibby stopped talking. Sobs took the place of words as the previous events finally sunk in. The Zabrak rubbed furiously at her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears that kept coming.