thecooler | The Scent of Lavender

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The Scent of Lavender

Who: Obi-Wan Kenobi & You
What: Obi-Wan got a reward! With a very distinct smell.
When: Day 17
Where: Residential Area
Warnings: None atm.

The whole testing experience had been rather trying, and it wasn't just the test either. Anakin was getting more difficult to deal with, and his presence only seemed to make it worse. Despite the Sith Lord being sent to... wherever it was he want, his demeanor had not improved in the slightest.

Obi-Wan knew he was the main target of Anakin's rage, and someone else had gotten hurt trying to help him.

Thus after the testing was done, the Jedi decided to hole himself away in his room again. The man rarely being seen for a week aside for coming out to eat or use the fresher. And that was typically done when he knew Anakin, and probably most everyone else, was asleep. He spent the time in his room meditating for the most part. Rarely even logging into the network.

However, around the 15th or so, some might catch a whiff of a different smell. One that some might recognize as lavender.

Obi-Wan had discovered he's been gifted with a host of cleaning supplies, for personal hygiene and otherwise. He decided to first try some of the personal items. Thus there would be hints of lavender lingering in the men's bathroom due to the Jedi's late night excursions. Using the lavender shampoo, soap, even toothpaste.

However, on the 17th he will be seen in the common areas again at a decent hour. Though before he's seen, anyone coming into the room he's in will be hit with a wall of lavender odor that is exceptionally strong. Yep, he's back to cleaning, and using lavender scented products. Wiping down surfaces with cleaning solution, the bleach if its especially nasty, and so forth. It's really handy having these, but it seems there is a price to pay in one's nose being assaulted.

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While a little surprised to see someone else up, Obi-Wan is hardly bothered by it. The offer of moving though is met with a dismissive hand wave.

"It's quite all right. Not as if there is much to eat here anyway."

The Jedi moving to where the rations are stored and taking a couple out. During the war he had been rather used to this sort of thing. While it might bother some of the others here, eating unpalatable nutrition bars was just routine for him.

He did sit down though, looking at the cards before taking a bite of the ration bar. Though he paused mid-chew as he looked at the man more closely.

"I don't believe we've met."

And here he thought he already knew everyone else here.

"Ah. No, I arrived late. The first since you all got here, as I understand it."

Wesley had gotten used to the bars of dubious foodstuff. Fortunately, his general emotional state had substantially dampened his appetite anyway, so he hadn't had to choke down too many.

"I arrived on, I believe, the second day of testing. I'm not sure if I saw you that morning or not, I was a touch..."

Overwhelmed.

"Distracted."

“Ah I see,” Obi-Wan said with an understanding nod. It seemed that LACUNA didn’t intend to stop with the small group she first brought in.

“I was a bit distracted myself.”

Not only with the testing, but his most recent episode with Anakin. But well, now they were meeting each other and introductions were better late than never.

“I’m Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Fortunately, while Wesley had managed to see little of Obi-Wan, he'd also seen even less of Anakin. It did mean, however, that he was entirely unaware of the conflicts between the two.

"The tests, yes. I got the impression they were... stressful."

Wesley grimaces slightly, then offers his own handshake.

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. It's good to meet you, circumstances aside."

Not to worry, Wesley was likely to find out about it soon enough. At least he didn’t have to see two men brawling naked.

With the extended hand though, Obi-Wan reached over to clasp in a handshake. They should all be friends here, and hopes they could be. Whether Anakin could come around though remained to be seen.

“Good to meet you as well. I take it you’re having difficulty sleeping?”

Friends indeed- most of those Wesley had encountered so far certainly were friendly, for which he was grateful. In an environment such as this, it would be very easy for the population to be suspicious, paranoid, and at each other's throats. ~~Of course, Wesley didn't need to know about the particular tendency of unnamed individuals to attack throats specifically, now did he?~~

"I suppose I have a lot on my mind."

Most of which predates his current inconvenient situation, but there was no call to burden Obi-Wan with it. Instead he gestures to the grid of shabby mismatched cards laid out on the counter.

"Which is why I've taken to a more calming mental occupation."

It was the same with Obi-Wan. He had been able to get along with everyone so far, with the one exception. But that exception made things very difficult. Especially with everything that had happened before he came here too. Which made it easy for the Jedi to sympathize.

“I understand.”

He really did. There was a lot on his mind too.

He then looked down at the table after taking another bite of a ration bar.

“A card game?”

Wesley wondered, based on the reactions of most of the others here, if perhaps the selection process for this place included a lot of emotional baggage. Most of them seemed to be more resigned about their plight than enraged, upset, or frightened, which were the responses Wesley would predict.

And something about the way Obi-Wan said he understood sounded, well, achingly sincere. It was a long

"Not precisely."

He gestures toward the cards.

"Playing a traditional card game would be quite futile with the decks in the state they're in. Every single deck is missing multiple cards. Combining two would make effective randomization impossible."

He's suspected since he arrived that this was done on purpose. The incomplete decks, the board games missing tokens, the horrid, horrid rations? It didn't track with the level of resources a place like this would require. No, this was either to unbalance them or motivate them. Possibly both. Turn even their recreation from a source of stress relief into an added form of stress, and simultaneously force them to cooperate in order to earn anything better.

"Instead, I've managed to combine two decks into a reasonable facsimile of chess."

At the explanation, Obi-Wan's brows rose slightly and he leaned over to look at the cards and their arrangement more closely.

"Chess? How have you managed to do that?"

He knew the game, and knew how to play, but he'd never seen it done this way before. There isn't much to do here though, so getting creative is a must. Wesley has him curious now.

"Ah. Well. There's not much to be done about the board, of course, so that I have to keep track of in my head."

He gestures to the strangely arrayed cards on the table.

"As there's no need for the pieces to match, I was able to assemble the two sets using multiple decks. Red suits for white, black suits for black."

As he's speaking, he gestures to each side of the field, and now he points out the cards to demonstrate.

"Kings and queens are self-explanatory, of course. Jacks for knights, aces for bishops, tens for rooks. Numbered cards for the pawns, no particular need to differentiate."

He looks back to Obi-Wan and shrugs.

"It seemed far more productive than attempting solitaire with missing pieces."

This is the most animated his voice has been during the entire conversation, although it's still very quiet and tense. He clearly wasn't kidding about needing to take his mind off of things.

"I'll admit, I'm actually not much of a chess player."

Following the explanation of the set up, Obi-Wan placed his hand on his chin thoughtfully and looked over the cards. It made sense, in a rather rudimentary way, but he was able to follow what he had in mind.

"I'm not much either," the Jedi then admitted. "But if I'm not mistaken, you do need two people to play."

Is he offering to play? Yes, yes he is. Perhaps they both could use the distraction.

"Playing against myself does get a bit monotonous."

Wesley's not going to turn that down. It might be the first remotely enjoyable thing to happen since he got here, anyway. The people here were nice and all, but most of his conversations since he arrived had, by necessity, been about their situation.

It could be nice to just sit and play a mentally focused game.

So he takes the black and red queens- then frowns, realizing they're not from the same original deck, and swaps the mismatched black queen for a black king- and shuffles them a handful of times before offering them to Obi-Wan to pick one.

Obi-Wan just chuckles at that and watches the Queen swap. When he's offered the cards, he takes them. He's not really familiar with these sorts of cards, but he will make do. He chooses the King and Queen of hearts as his pieces. Then goes about setting up his side as best he can with the arrangement that Wesley had just explained.

"Your move," he then says once they're both set up.

After all, a Jedi never attacks first.

That was interesting.

Red, in this case, would have taken the place of white, but Obi-Wan had ceded the first-turn advantage. Wesley wasn't much of a player, but he understood the theory. And the implications. Fortunately, he wasn't a good enough chess player for the disconnect to throw him off.

Obi-Wan was an curious man already. Still, Wesley had no problem going along with it- perhaps he could ask about it after the fact.

"If you don't mind my asking," he asks, as he shifts his king's pawn forward two spaces, "what did you do before- well. This." He emphasizes 'This' with a gesture at their surroundings.

There was a few moments pause at the question, moving his own pawn forward before deciding to answer.

"It's a bit complicated," he admitted.

"Two weeks ago, I would have told that I was a general in a galactic war."

Which, as they continued to move pieces, may become a bit apparent. He wasn't a talented chess player, but he new strategy. And Obi-Wan would take a more defensive approach to the game as he often did in battle. Until the right moment when he could make a bold offensive move.

"But now things are different."

Galactic war?

Wesley had heard of realms beyond the stars, but he had always imagined them to be more or less metaphysical in position, not a place you could actually hold interstellar warfare. Obi-Wan was clearly another native of a place very different from Wesley's own world.

Fascinating.

And unusual. Obi-Wan's playstyle seemed to be playing into a classic mistake of new players- overcaution. He avoided risks, didn't allow himself to lose pieces, even if it meant ceding control of the center.

"I must say, I've never been to space, and I'm certainly not a military man"

Not in a literal sense, anyway. He had often been engaged in battle against the forces of darkness, but he'd been either a lone agent or support in most cases.

"But I must say, I believe I can relate."

Against a more experienced player, Wesley suspected that the attempt at defensive play would fail- masters of the game could readily pick apart an overly timid player as much as an overly aggressive one.

Wesley was not a master. His initial response, when Obi-Wan began to play defensively and mount a line, was to push forward, risk pieces, attempt to bait him into breaking formation. But he didn't. He kept up the defense, refusing to capitalize on the opportunities Wesley would put in front of him.

"A researcher. First for a private investigation company, then for a law firm. But, like you, things changed quite drastically before I came here."

As Wesley's pieces controlled more and more of the field, Obi-Wan's defensive tactics didn't break. He didn't make any sloppy panic moves. In fact, he seemed quite controlled, despite the reactive retreating, despite not claiming Wesley's pieces when he had the opportunity.

Wesley wasn't a master, and so, no matter how he studied the board, he couldn't see whether or not Obi-Wan was setting a trap or just being too defensive for his own good.

"Hm," Obi-Wan hummed thoughtfully as he both listened and paid attention to the makeshift board before them. Making a retreating move as Wesley's pieces advanced on his. With how little he reacted to the fact that he was losing ground, he would probably be good at poker too.

"Well, my people were not meant to involved in wars. We were peacekeepers, and yet were put in that position."

He moved again, Wesley's aggressive tactic practically backing him up in a corner.

"It only aided in our own downfall."

And Wesley's growing overconfidence in the game might be his.

"I hope your change was more for the better than mine."

In point of fact, that overconfidence is rapidly becoming a lack of confidence. Neither of them has lost many pieces, Obi-Wan continues to stock himself, and at this point the only way out of the deadlock would be to surrender pieces. He's kept his line of pawns relatively intact, and behind them is a full line of pieces surrounding his king.

Obi-Wan hasn't set a trap. He's set a stalemate. One Wesley has to break by force if he hopes to eliminate it.

And that brings Wesley's play to a halt as he considers it.

"Well, the law firm was evil. In the literal and supernatural sense. Losing my position there would be a step up."

Wesley decides it'd be better to not mention the dying part if he doesn't have to. Or the fact that dying won't actually release him from the contracts Wolfram and Hart has over him. Just make the joke and move on.

Move on to this stalemate. He can take pawns, but whatever he uses will be sacrificed- and trading for pawns would be a losing proposition.

He'd have to set up a winning rally. So when he finally begins moving again, his movements are no longer aggressive. He begins spreading his pieces out, keeping only a scarce few pieces in advance to capitalize if his opponent tried to advance again.

"The cost of a moral victory, I suppose."

It seems that his opponent has caught onto him. Obi-Wan just waits patiently as Wesley considers his move. He's curious now, wondering what he will do or if they will have to indeed concede on a stalemate.

"I see. Moral victory can be very costly, but otherwise one could lose oneself."

That was a debate all in itself. However, Obi-Wan was the type to prefer taking the moral high ground as it were. Even if it meant making a sacrifice. Even if it brought himself a lot of pain.

Obi-Wan's eyes go back to the game, stroking his beard thoughtfully as he considers his opponents move. He followed along, spreading his pieces out more as well, but still keeping his best well guarded. He gets an idea though, and places a knight well within striking distance. A decoy perhaps? He hasn't sacrificed any pieces yet, and his opponent might expect it and thus consider it a mistake. Thus luring him into a careless move. Or he might suspect at much, ignoring it, allowing him to advance.

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The Scent of Lavender

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I'm so glad Wesley's not a pop culture guy. Makes this much easier.

Lol people have ICly fanboyed over him in other games before.

I got crit once for having my Obi-Wan actually watch the movies with Luke in Luceti

Whaaaat? Why?

REASONS!1

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