i am a human being

[girlybruiser]

WHO: HARU, POE & BB-8
WHERE: The streets of Nonah.
WHEN: Late morning of 6/16.
WHAT: Poor BB-8 gets mistaken for a Shadow.
WARNINGS: Attempted violence against droids.

---

Sometimes, you get a strange feeling.

Maybe it's a tingling on your arm and you look down to spot a strange bruise, a bug, a strand of hair. Maybe it's out of the corner of your eye, recognition of someone you wouldn't have looked twice at had it not been for this out of the blue urge.

It's poor timing for BB-8, the droid who rolled a little too far from Poe and wound up on Haru's radar. She almost wouldn't have noticed it had it not been for that peculiar urge to glance over her shoulder. At first, she isn't sure what she's looking at, but once she determines it's a robot of some sort, memories of Kunikazu Okumura's Palace flood her mind. All the strange Shadows disguised as robots and other machinery, all prepared to harm her and her friends.

She doesn't know how or why this thing is here, but she's already made up her mind; she has to take it down before it can do any damage.

And that's how half the street witnessed a small girl lugging an axe too big for her stature, chasing down a panicked BB-8 while narrowly missing slicing its head off.

Comments

[flightforfreedom]

The droid named BB-8 had gotten very accustomed to Earth. Slightly annoyed, sometimes, by the lack of communication with the locals - only a few imports could speak binary - but most of them had gotten so used to its presence that it could just roll around and enjoy the city even when Poe was busy in the grocery store.

However, there was no mistaking what the droid was trying to say now. It was speeding down the street, making a high piercing sound that could only really be called a scream.

It was luck, that had Poe coming out of the shop at just the right time, carrying bags of groceries, to catch sight of the crazy girl trying to kill his best friend. The groceries dropped suddenly to the ground, eggs shattering on impact, and he launched himself forward to try to tackle the axe-wielding maniac to the ground.

[girlybruiser]

It's unfortunate Haru can't comprehend the binary screaming from the poor droid; it would have stopped her in her tracks eventually.

(Or not. Shadows that beg for mercy are much more pleasing to take down.)

For a tiny girl, she seems to wield her axe well enough to actually come close to hitting BB-8 again. It's when she raises her arms she's left wide open and she doesn't see Poe coming until it's too late. Given he's much bigger than her, Haru goes down easily, hitting the pavement hard enough to scrape some skin off her knees.

"Ow!"

The tackle loosens her grip on her weapon, the axe clanging to the ground and out of reach.

anD THEN I LOST THIS THREAD LIKE A DICK

[flightforfreedom]

Poe hits the pavement too, though not as hard as she does, and immediately scrambles up to shove the axe even further away, before rounding on her.

"What the hell?" He snaps, putting himself between her and the droid. "What's wrong with you??"

NO WORRIES

[girlybruiser]

"Goodness!"

Haru slowly gets to her knees, but rather than stand she slides back away from what appears to be a grown man now putting himself before the Shadow, which seems to be beeping at her. Aggressively? Nervously? She can't differentiate the sounds.

"Oh, my stockings..." She looks at the blooded stockings, then back at Poe, her face flushed. "S-sir, please get away from that! It is not safe!"

The growing concern the droid will split in half, its true form unveiling, is a terrifying prospect.

"Don't worry, I can handle it!"

[flightforfreedom]

The sounds are definitely worried. Not that anyone but Poe would know that for sure, exactly. But they're a worried stammer, asking Poe what was going on and if he was okay. Poe only barely turns his head to talk to the droid. "It's okay buddy, I got this."

Then he turns back to the stranger.

"You're not going to handle anything, pal, BB-8 is a hell of a lot safer than you're proving to be, right now."

[girlybruiser]

"BB-8?" Haru repeats the name slowly, absolutely puzzled. She still shows concern for Poe more-so than BB-8, eyeing the droid every few seconds to ensure it hasn't transformed into a monster of some sort yet.

"Is it not a Shadow?" Not that this man may know what that is, but there are many things people in this world have seen or experienced for themselves, so there's the possibility he's encountered a Shadow or something similar in the past.

She finally begins to get up, making no move to attack from the front. In fact, she simply stands there with her skinned knees, looking more and more dumbfounded by the minute.

[flightforfreedom]

"A shad-- what? No, he's a droid." Poe was starting to look about as confused as she did, though the fact that she was no longer swinging an axe around was letting him relax a little, the adrenaline slowly wearing off.

"He's a droid and he's my partner, so I'd really rather you didn't try to lob his head off."

[girlybruiser]

A droid? Though she immediately thinks "robot", there's still puzzlement in her expression.

"Partner?" So it's... safe? Haru peers at BB-8 suspiciously, but slowly begins to relax as she begins to sense some kind of familiarity between the droid and man. "He will not hurt anyone?"

[flightforfreedom]

"No, of course he's not going to hurt anyone. Does he look like a battle droid?" Poe honestly sounded confused, and BB-8 very cautiously rolled up behind him, half-hiding behind his legs to get a look at Haru.

In truth, BB-8 could give a nasty shock, if he wanted to, but that was about the extent of the droid's offensive capabilities.

You know. Until someone tries feeding him coins, anyway.

BB-8 made a low, nervous 'wooo' noise.

"No, I don't think she's going to attack you again." He looked back at the stranger. "Are you?"

[girlybruiser]

Haru is silent for a fleeting moment, unsure if Poe is being facetious with that question or if he actually expects her to answer it. Her lips tug downward into an "I don't know" fashion as she cants her head to look back at BB-8. He doesn't look like a "battle" creature at all, but she's seen things like him go from harmless to murderous in seconds, so...

"Um... not if he is not going to attack." She keeps her distance to prove she won't do anything. "You can understand him?"

Her question is directed at Poe, although she has to wonder how both of them are able to understand each other.

[flightforfreedom]

"He's not going to attack." He was relaxing, but now he sounded a little tired, before reaching back and giving BB-8 a soothing pat on the head. "He's an astromech - he's saved my life more times than I can count, but he doesn't even have any weaponry installed, unless you count his arc welder."

He glanced down to BB-8 and back to her.

"Yeah. He speaks Binary, but I understand it. Even before I got my powers here, I could understand it - don't ask me to speak it, though. There's no way to even try that without making a complete ass of myself."

He paused, considering.

"You're an imPort, right? The Natives don't - uh - usually have that kind of a reaction to Beebee."

[girlybruiser]

"Yes, I am." Haru nods, not even trying to deny that fact. She peeks at BB-8 again, this time watching Poe pat his head and garnering even more of their relationship from the gesture. She appears guilty now, since she was very much focused on tearing apart the little guy.

"I thought he was a monster of sorts from back home," she then squats so she can meet BB-8 at eye level (if he has eyes? She can't exactly tell) and bows her head apologetically. "I am very sorry for attacking you! I should not have assumed... um, you are not hurt, are you?"

[flightforfreedom]

The droid certainly has something that looks like an eye - a single wide camera lens that it meeting her gaze almost plaintively. It tilts its head as it watches her, then lets out a low series of whistles and beeps that sound a little less nervous than they did last time.

"He says he's fully functional," Poe translates. "But that he's not a monster, and--" He pauses, frowning as he processes the next bit. "He says he's sorry he scared you."

[girlybruiser]

She actually hears the variance this time, though it continues to be difficult for her to parse so she has to look to Poe as he translates what the droid says. Her face falls when she realizes BB-8 feels bad for scaring her, her hands going up to her chest as she gasps quietly.

"Oh... poor thing! No, please don't be sorry. The fault is entirely my own." She sighs, "It was irresponsible of me to make such an assumption in the first place. I hope you can forgive me."

[flightforfreedom]

The droid let out a low, worried sound, stretched out, before glancing to Poe. He just nodded, and the droid swivelled its head to look back at Haru, and then let out a sound that definitely sounded like an affirmation, even if you couldn't speak binary.

Poe still translated anyway.

"He said he forgives you, as long as you don't try to hit him with an axe again." He looked at her and gave a bemused look. "So I'll forgive you, too. Though maybe you should just keep that thing wrapped up in the middle of the street, anyway."

[girlybruiser]

"I promise not to," Haru bows her head again, noticing her knees once more. She winces at the scrape and the bit of blood on them before looking back to Poe. "I've never seen a droid like him before... at least one that seems happy and safe."

The robots in her father's Palace always looked as if they were on the verge of self-destructing or falling apart. Most of them did at some point.

[flightforfreedom]

He notices her knees when she glances down at them, and then immediately feels bad. Great.

"He's one of a kind," He says, automatically. "Even where I'm from. Earth just doesn't make anything like him, I don't think. There's a few others like him here that are imPorts, though."

He shifted his weight and then sighed. "Come on, we should get you cleaned up."