DISCLAIMER:
I own nothing. I'm merely playing with the characters in the sandbox that is my imagination.
Except for the ocht'kai. Those things are mine.
dissonance, noun;
Lack of harmony among musical notes.
Lack of agreement or harmony between people or things.
1.
The Girl of the Dunes
For the first time in more years than she can remember, Rey awakens to a loud crash. Her eyes snap open and she is instantly on her feet, years of living in the dunes having honed her survival instincts to a fine point. Her beloved staff is in her hands as she warily makes her way through the AT-AT that she has claimed as her home, her senses on high alert.
When she gets to the head of the walker – the only room that has windows – her eyebrows rise in surprise. There, two or so hundred feet away from her walker, is a crashed space ship.
She stares at it for only a few seconds before she is on the move. She returns to her living area, hastily pulls on the clothes that will protect her from most of the heat, and gathers what little supplies she needs. It's just a scouting trip, so she won't bring much. She just needs to see the condition of the ship. She grimaces at that, at how her first instinct is to see how valuable the salvage from it might be, when she should really see if anyone survived.
It has been a long time since a ship has crashed down on Jakku, and thus it is too easy for her to forget the living.
It takes her only a couple of minutes to be ready. It's only a few hundred feet, but she does contemplate on taking her speeder anyway. It's still early morning, the sun barely having gotten over the horizon, but she knows that walking even that distance will be difficult when the sun begins to heat the sand. And, she reminds herself, if there are survivors, they would be easier to get to safety with it.
In the end, she takes the speeder.
As she approaches the craft she can see it is a TIE class fighter. A newer model than the ones she has seen in the desert before, sleek and black, all sharp edges and perfectly straight angles. But the basics of the ship have changed very little. It looks menacing, she supposes, but miraculously it seems to have survived the crash almost fully intact. She cannot even see smoke, and she realises she might have the biggest haul of her life in her hands.
That is, until she comes to a halt beside it and sees the dark figure crumpled just outside the entry hatch into the fighter.
Rey hesitates for only the briefest of moments before she unmounts her speeder and approaches the figure. He has to be the pilot, as she knows the TIE fighters are usually designed for only one person. He's lying face down in the sand, having apparently just managed to crawl out of the fighter before passing out.
She gingerly begins to turn him over to inspect how badly he is wounded, but she can see no injuries, no rips or tears or dark patches of blood in the, frankly, rather strange clothing he wears.
Before he is fully on his back, a glint of sunlight catches on something on his belt. She freezes again, having expected a blaster, but instead she sees a hilt of what she assumes is a lightsaber.
Is he a Jedi?
Well, now she has to help him, doesn't she? If the stories of Jedi are true, then it would be stupid of her to leave him to his fate.
Not that she was considering that. Not, even though it might not have been the first thought in her mind. She's too kind to leave even a complete stranger to their fate like this. Or perhaps it is because he is a complete stranger. Goodness knows she could deal without some of the people from the outpost.
And then there is the question of why he's flying a TIE fighter. It's... Not really an usual choice for a Jedi, but who's to say a Jedi couldn't pilot a TIE, right?
She pushes these thoughts aside and finally turns him around. There seem to be no wounds on this side either, no rips or tears of burnt patches of clothing. This is good. It looks increasingly more certain that he will survive.
And then her gaze finds his face, and she blinks in surprise at how strangely young he is. Dark lashes frame his closed eyes, just as his softly curling dark hair frames his face. He has a long nose that reminds her of ocht'kai, the desert streakers, giant birds of prey with black feathers and underbellies the colour of the sky - birds that the locals know to keep an eye on and avoid, as they are known to prey on the unwary. His skin is pale, suggesting he has not seen much sunlight, and then she finally sees at least a small inclination that he was injured in the crash. There is a small scratch on his forehead that has blood seeping from it, and she wonders if he has a concussion.
She hopes not, for his sake. The scratch she can deal with, but a concussion is something she doesn't know how to handle.
Getting him to her speeder proves to be a challenge, but Rey is nothing if not determined. He's tall, so very tall that she wonders if his height ever intimidates anyone. She half drags rather than carries him inside her AT-AT, into the bowels where it is cooler, where the sun's rays don't quite reach with their scorching heat. Her cot is the only bed she has, and though she knows it might be more comfortable for him, she does not have the strength to lift him there. Instead she makes him as comfortable as she can on the floor, laying him on some spare blankets to ward off the chill of the AT-AT-'s hull, and propping his head on a spare pillow she snatches from her bed.
After a moment's hesitation she removes his lightsaber from his belt. No one should sleep with their weapon on them. She does place it next to him on the floor though, so that when he wakes up it is nearby. Next to that she also places a small container of water, in case he is thirsty and she's not there to find him any. She then fetches her meager medical supplies, and marvels at how deep his unconsciousness seems to be when he doesn't wake to the sting of the antiseptic. She examines the wound critically as the blood clears out, and comes to the conclusion that it is nothing serious and will heal just fine on its own.
She sighs and stands up, putting her supplies back to their places. She's mildly worried of how he hasn't awoken yet, but there's very little else she can do to help him until he does.
Rey walks out her AT-AT. She has a ship to check out for damage.
-o-o-o-
When Kylo Ren awakens, it is to a mild headache and hazy memories. He clenches his jaw shut, trying to recall how he got injured, and the memories flood back to him. He had been discussing their next move with General Hux and Captain Phasma when they received word of an incident in one of the main hangars, involving a possible traitor and an escaped prisoner.
Poe Dameron was their only prisoner.
Hux had ordered Phasma to rally her troops and prevent the escape, but Ren knew it would be too late. And thus he had done the only thing he could think of and gave orders to prepare his fighter. He'd been after Dameron and the traitor almost as soon as they had gotten out of the Star Destroyer, and watched with mild annoyance as they decimated the TIE fighters sent after them.
It hadn't been a surprise to him that he had managed to clip the fighter they had stolen, sending it spiralling down towards Jakku. What had surprised him, however, was the hit that he had suffered almost as soon as they started their spiralling downfall. The Force had warned him of the impact too late – something that simply never happened to him. As a result, he had lost all control of his TIE Silencer, and realised that if he did nothing he would most likely end up dead.
Thankfully, calling the Force to aid him was not a difficult task. It took him a considerable amount of energy to keep the fighter stable enough to bring it through atmosphere, but he had done it. He had crashed down into the sand dunes, amongst the giant hulls of Star Destroyers long forgotten. Remnants of an old battle. A graveyard.
But, he had crashed down alive.
The last he remembered was the constricting feeling of his mask, the trail of blood that bled into his right eye, irritating his vision, how he had hazily pulled the mask off and used his last strength to get himself out of the fighter. He'd blacked out shortly after, no doubt exhausted by the excessive amount of Force he had used to keep the fighter stable, as well as from whatever injuries he might have suffered.
So why, then, does he not feel the heat of the desert now that he is awake?
Ren blinks his eyes open, and frowns at the dimly lit room he was in. It is... It looks like the insides of a an Imperial walker, if he is brutally honest, but even in the ceiling above him he sees signs of someone having made their home here. He feels uneasy in this unknown environment and reaches for his belt at the same time as he reaches out with the Force, and freezes when he feels his belt missing his lightsaber, and the life energy of a living being in the same room with him.
"It's to your right", a voice tells him, clipped, slightly hesitant. "There's water too, if you want it."
Ren glances to his right, and indeed he spots his lightsaber and a small water container. He narrows his eyes suspiciously and snatches his weapon, hastily pulling himself up to a seated position to assess the possible threat.
What he sees gives him pause.
It is a young girl, perhaps a few years younger than he is, dressed in beige and brown, her hair pulled up to three buns at the back of her head. She's seated cross-legged at a small cot, bent over some sort of a mechanical part she has on her lap with a focused look on her face. She's working on it, peering into the mess of exposed wires as she looks for what she is trying to find. A look of pure victory flashes on her face as she finds what she is looking for, disconnects a few wires and pulls out the faulty piece, swiftly tossing it aside and replacing it with a new one.
Who is this girl? And where is he?
The girl is speaking no more, intently putting the mechanical part she works on back together. Instead, Ren focuses on his surroundings, and comes to the conclusion that he is, indeed, inside an old Imperial AT-AT walker. There's no mistaking the structure of its walls, even though the paint has long since vanished, and the fact that the room is tilted sideways. There are signs of life everywhere, signs that the girl has made the walker – or at least this part of it – her home. He spots various scrapped parts from both old Imperial and Rebel ships, one of them being a repurposed part of an old X-Wing that works as a work bench, and a small bench that is made of a part of a TIE bomber's wing. There's an old Rebel pilot helmet on a makeshift shelf, right next to an unmobile Imperial mouse droid.
And then he sees the wall, and he freezes.
There, on the wall behind the girl, are scratch marks. Tiny, tiny scratch marks, in neat rows, stacking from floor to ceiling. He cannot help but stare at them, uncomprehending, as his mind tries to count how many of those tiny marks there are.
"Five thousand, three hundred and forty four", the girl murmurs.
Ren blinks, and turns to give a confused look at the girl. She's still staring at the part she is fixing. "What?"
"The marks", the girl tells him. "That's how many there are. Five thousand, three hundred and forty four. It's the equivalent of... about fourteen standard galactic years."
She gives out a small sound of success and snaps the small panel on the mechanical part shut. She looks at the part with a satisfied expression, then tosses it aside into a pile with of other parts. She then reaches for another one from a different pile, turns the part around for a moment before opening a hatch and setting to work again.
She's a scavenger, Ren realises, and the marks are days.
"It's missing a few", she explains as she pries the small maintenance hatch open and peers inside the part. "I didn't... I lost count before I moved in here. Couldn't keep it down anywhere but my head."
How has the girl not lost her mind? Isn't she lonely?
Ren pushes this thought aside and swallows, realising he is thirsty. He eyes the small water container the girl has provided him with, and decides to take the risk of drinking it. He still doesn't know what her intentions are, but he doubts one of them is poisoning him. She has clearly gone through the trouble to bring him into her home from where he had lost consciousness.
How did she even managed that?
"My ship?" he asks her curtly, worried that it might be in pieces, that it is somewhere too far away for him to return to it.
"A few hundred feet from here", she replies, narrowing her eyes at the part she is fixing. "Busted your stabilisers. Otherwise, the ship is fine. Can't fly in atmosphere though, not without those stabilisers."
She pauses, her frown deepening, and suddenly she snaps the small panel she had opened and tosses the part aside. For the first time since Ren awoke the girl turns to look at him. She looks hesitant, he realises, as if she is not used to speaking with another person.
"I... can maybe help you with that", she tells him. "There's a downed Star Destroyer nearby. It's been stripped of most of the valuable parts, but there's a TIE fighter hangar full of old fighters, with fully functional stabilisers. No one bothers with them, they're not valuable enough since the fighters themselves cannot fly. From what I saw when I took a look at your ship, the stabilisers haven't changed since the older model, and can be swapped into yours."
Ren tilts his head slightly, curiosity rearing its head. This is the most the girl has said to him thus far, and all that just to offer him help?
Why?
"How long would that take?" he asks instead.
The girl hums thoughtfully, unconsciously mimicking his movement as she tilts her head to one side. "A day, maybe two. Depends on..."
She trails off, her gaze shifting away from him uneasily.
"Depends on...?" he prods.
The girl is still hesitating, and she bites her bottom lip. Then she comes to some sort of a conclusion and turns to look at him again. All of her previous hesitation is gone from her face.
"Are you a Jedi?"
He starts at her question, feels the bubbling simmer of his anger begin to rise, but before he can snap at the girl, or do something worse than that, she is talking again.
"Your sword", she explains. "Saw it when I found you."
Ah, yes, that would explain the question, wouldn't it? His anger subsides, for now, and he finally realises the girl truly has no idea who he is, what he is capable of.
"You do not have to be a Jedi to carry lightsabers.", he replies, his voice controlled, low. It's not an outright denial, nor a confirmation, and he isn't exactly sure why he isn't telling her who he is.
Curiosity, he realises as soon as he thinks that. His damned curiosity.
She seems to slump slightly at his response. "Oh... right. I just... I heard stories that Jedi could... move things. It might've made acquiring the stabilisers a little easier."
Ren very nearly chuckles out loud. What an odd way of looking at things. She doesn't care for his motives, his allegiance, or who he is. Or at least, she didn't appear to. Her only concern seems to be whether or not the repairs of his ship could be made any faster. It's... kind of refreshing, actually.
Thankfully, he can still help her out there.
"You also do not have to be a Jedi to be capable of the same things", he tells her.
Her eyes seem to light up, and he can very nearly sense her excitement even without tapping into the Force.
"A day it is then", she tells him, nodding. "If we go now, you could, in theory, be off Jakku by nightfall."
He raises an eyebrow. Is she serious?
But of course she is. She is a scavenger, and by the look of things she knows how to both dismantle and repair ships, with minimal tools, if any at all. That is a useful skill, one that could, perhaps, be put to good use.
But he is thinking too much ahead of himself. His first priority must be repairing his ship, finding out whether or not Dameron and the traitor survived, and making sure Hux keeps him updated on the situation regarding the missing BB unit.
-o-o-o-
It takes them an hour to get to the Star Destroyer she mentioned. Rey had grabbed all of her usual supplies, packed some extra water just in case, since there were two of them, and dug out something for the man to protect his face and eyes with. He had seemed surprised at first, until she had explained to him how harsh the desert could be if one did not have proper protection.
She is amazed that he isn't melting in his black outfit, but it seems its properties somehow keep most of the desert heat away. She isn't still certain of who he is, what side he is on, and his cryptic answers to her inquiries regarding the Jedi confuse her. She wonders, as she leads him inside the mountainous bulk of the downed Star Destroyer, whose side this man actually is on. She doesn't dare ask him, feels that it isn't her business anyway. But if he is a Jedi, like she had initially thought, she supposes he would like to keep that particular information a secret. She isn't stupid. She has heard of the First Order, of the Rebellion, and the lack of Jedi in the galaxy. If rumours of a Jedi would begin to spread, the First Order would be quickly on said Jedi's trail.
Either way, Rey feels compelled to help him, despite not knowing exactly who he is. It doesn't matter to her, really. She committed to helping him the moment she dragged him inside her AT-AT. The fact that he hasn't shown any hostility towards her so far has chased the last remaining doubts of her decision out of her mind.
The man is silent. She doesn't mind that. She's not used to talking with strangers, keeping her interactions with other people to a bare minimum. The only person she ever really talks to is Unkar Plutt, and even that she does out of pure necessity.
That reminds her that she should check if she can find anything else to salvage while she looks for the stabilisers. Her haul from the previous day was better than she has had in weeks, and Plutt had rewarded her with enough food portions to last for a few days. Still, it would not hurt to look, right?
She removes the scarf she uses to keep the desert heat away from her face as soon as they are in the shadowy depths of the Star Destroyer. She breathes in the dry, cool air and momentarily closes her eyes. Even though scavenging is a necessity to her, she has grown oddly fond of doing so. Every trip is an adventure, every find an exhilarating treasure that others have overlooked.
Rey thrives for adventure. It is the only way she has survived her loneliness all these years.
She pushes these thoughts aside and focuses on her surroundings. The entryway into the Star Destroyer she has used isn't too far from where she needs to be. It's easy to navigate inside the massive ship, its insides having mostly collapsed years ago, mostly due to the initial damage from the battle that downed all the ships on Jakku. A few rooms remain intact, and miraculously the TIE fighter hangar is one of those.
The problem isn't getting to it. It is the fact that once they get in there, the actual fighters will be docked a few hundred feet above them.
"This way", she says quietly, her voice hushed, wary of making too much noise in in the large space. Desert creatures sometimes make their homes in the bellies of the huge ships, and the less of an echo she makes, the better.
She does not look at the man behind her as she begins to make her way towards their destination, but she knows by some instinct that he is following her. He moves silently, stealthily, like he is completely at home in the shadows of the ancient ship, but still she is keenly aware of his presence behind her. Oddly enough his silent presence behind her does not make her uncomfortable, merely reassured that if something would jump at them, she doesn't have to face it alone.
The hangar door is half collapsed. There is a large crack in it ten or so feet above them, but it is a tricky climb. She assesses the wall critically, looking for an alternate way of entry. Another, much smaller crack is at the ground level five feet to their left. It is large enough for a person to pass through, but there is fallen debris on the other side, blocking the way.
She sighs wearily, turning to asses the wall again, when the man beside her moves towards the smaller crack. She tilts her head curiously at him, wondering what he is planning. He eyes the debris for a moment, then briefly closes his eyes before he lifts his right hand.
There is... something in the air. Rey has no idea what it is, and has no time to ponder it further when the sound of creaking metal draws her gaze to the crack. In front of her eyes the fallen debris is moving, bending in on itself, drawing away from the previously blocked path.
When the man lowers his hand Rey can do nothing but stare in amazement before moving to inspect the path.
"What did you do?" she asks, fascinated, her voice barely above a whisper.
The man's only response is a faint upwards twitch of his lips.
Rey shakes her head, still amazed at how easily he had moved such a large amount of solid metal with barely lifting a finger. She wonders, again, if he is, indeed, a Jedi and is simply unwilling to give her a straight answer. Her amazement fuels her on as she finally makes her way into the old hangar, mesmerised by the fact that she does not have to repeat the difficult climb she has previously had to go through when she has been here.
The hangar is slightly darker than the spacious room they had come from. Rey is used to it though, and can work with the minimal light that comes from the few tears in the ship's hull. The hangar's outer blast doors are closed, and miraculously they have survived the crash nearly intact, blocking any access to the hangar from that direction. The room is tilted slightly, in a very awkward position if she is brutally honest, and as she recalled the fighters are above them rather than in the same level.
She looks at the support beams, assesses the walls, and ponders.
"I need to get up there", she says out loud, sharing the plan that she has already formed in her mind with the man she is helping. "Once I've done that, I'm going to find a pair of undamaged stabilisers – your ship needs two of them – and then I'm going to detach and drop them since they're too heavy to carry down. Can you, err..."
She pauses, looking for the right words. She has no idea how his powers work, how large objects he is capable of moving.
"Catch them and set them down?" he asks her, not quite able to hide the amusement from his tone.
"Yes", she responds, relieved that he understood what she was trying to say. "So, can you?"
He nods in agreement. "That will not be a problem."
She gives him a brisk nod and prepares her climbing gear. It's not much really, just a grappling cable she has salvaged years ago from a downed Hammerhead cruiser. She uses it to secure herself as she climbs higher, relying on her ability to climb a nearly vertical wall with minimal space for her fingers and toes to hold on to. She loops the cable across her shoulder, makes sure it is secure, and approaches the wall as her eyes sweep it for purchase. She tilts her head backwards, planning her movements ahead, playing a pantomime with her hands as she memorises which moves she needs to make in which order.
Then, she closes her eyes, focuses for the briefest of moments, breathing in and out in a steady rhythm.
On the last exhale, she moves. She pounces on the wall, letting years and years of instinct direct her movements as she scales it with little to no effort. A few minutes later she reaches her first stop, twenty feet above the level where she had started. She secures the cable there, attaching the loose end to her belt that doubles as a climbing harness, and then she is off again, climbing, pausing on secure platforms, assessing her situation, planning and climbing some more. She loses all sense of time, only focusing on getting to the docked TIE fighters as quickly and safely as possible. She forgets, as she climbs, why she is doing it, forgets the man waiting down below, her earlier thoughts on who he actually is. Nothing exists for her but the climb and the goal she has set, as she knows that any stray thoughts, any slips in concentration, could potentially be fatal.
She doesn't know how long it takes to the top, but when she does she takes a brief moment to celebrate by perching on top of the docking beams that keep the TIE fighters securely in their places. She attatches her grappling cable, and only then glances down to see the distance she has covered.
The man in the dark clothing waits patiently below, his face upturned, a pale speck in all the shadows. He has moved to lean against the wall, his arms crossed in front of her as he watches and waits for her to finish her task. She gives him a small, satisfied smirk, even though she knows he cannot see it.
And then she gets to work. The fighter closest to her proves to be a bust, its stabilisers damaged beyond repair, so she moves over to the next one. This one has a shattered cockpit window, and she sees someone has stripped its insides of all useful parts. She can see, however, that it was done a long time ago, and she suspects no one has bothered with the fighters since.
No one comes to the parts of Graveyard Rey frequents. Perhaps she will return here later to take a closer look.
The TIE fighter she is examining has a busted left stabiliser, but the one on the right is undamaged. She makes sure she has a secure perch before she begins to detach it. It's not a particularly large part when it's retracted, nor difficult to get loose, but it is heavy.
Two minutes of careful cutting, tugging and unplugging, and Rey gives a warning call that echoes eerily in the otherwise quiet hangar. She watches the stabiliser drop through the air, and stop abruptly in mid-air. She glances towards the man in the dark clothes and notes that he is holding his hand upwards again as he lowers the stabiliser to the ground.
She grins and moves on. The next TIE is missing most of its wings, but thankfully the stabilisers are intact and she works quickly to detach the left side stabiliser. One warning shout later, and the piece falls to the ground, once again stopping in mid-air before floating back to the ground slowly. Rey makes one final glance around, notes that the fighter has a cockpit full of goodies she can salvage at a later time, and makes her way back to the point where she attached her grappling cable.
She'll use it to descend this time, and leave it where it is. It is long enough for her to reach the floor from all the way up here, and it'll save her from climbing back up again on her next salvage trip. After all, people never come to these parts of the Graveyard, so there is no worry of someone else using it instead of her.
-o-o-o-
Kylo Ren has seen many things, but he has to admit the efficiency and precision with which this scavenger girl works is something else.
He is not truly a mechanic himself, but he did dabble in his youth, before it became clear that his Force sensitivity had meant him for far greater things. It is this knowledge that makes him able to appreciate the girl's skills as she works on his fighter with only minimal tools. The help she requires from him is minimal, namely lifting the heavy stabilisers in place with the Force and keeping them there while she reconnects the wires and properly attatches the pieces where they are supposed to be.
She tells him it'll be enough to get him out of the atmosphere. He plans on having a mechanic replace the stabilisers with new ones as soon as he gets back to the Star Destroyer in orbit, but he can see that she is doing a commendable work on her own.
He has to seriously consider picking her up to work as a mechanic for the First Order as soon as the business with the missing droid and the escaped Poe Dameron is dealt with.
He had signalled Hux in orbit while the two of them were in the downed Star Destroyer earlier. Hux had shown mild concern that Ren had taken so long to inform of his whereabouts, but he had assured the General that his ship was merely having a minor malfunction. The search for the droid, according to Hux, was not going too well. They had also tracked the heat signature of the TIE fighter Poe Dameron had stolen to the opposite side of the small scavenger outpost nearby, but were unable to determine whether or not Dameron and the traitorous Stormtrooper had survived the crash.
He had told the General to focus on finding the droid. He could take a detour himself to examine the crash site for any signs of life before getting out of the planet.
Night is beginning to fall when the scavenger girl tells him the stabilisers are in place. She asks him to get into the cockpit and try to extend them so that she can make sure the repairs are working as intended. They are, thankfully, and the girl makes her way down and comes to stand just outside the open cockpit of the TIE Silencer.
"Well", she says, a satisfied look on her face. "That's that done then. You're good to go."
"I appreciate it", he tells her sincerely. Though he normally does not concern himself with the needs of others, this time he makes an exception. "Is there anything I can do for you before I leave?"
She falters, glancing down at the ground awkwardly. "Er... That fighter of yours wouldn't happen to have food rations in it? That's... The only thing I really need, to be honest."
He is surprised by this, but realises that helping him has taken her the whole day. He guesses she would have normally been scavenging for herself so that she can sell the parts she finds at the outpost. His fighter does, in fact, have a small amount of food rations, and he does not hesitate to part with them.
"Thanks", she says, flashing him a small grin. "Well, have a safe flight."
She is stepping away from the fighter now, but before she can get very far he makes a decision and speaks up again.
"Wait", he calls. "I didn't ask your name."
She looks mildly surprised, having not expected that. Neither of them has asked one another's name during the whole day, but if he will recruit her later he would rather be at least this much informed.
"Er... Rey", she says, looking a bit flustered. "I'm Rey."
He gives her a faint smile. "Thank you, Rey. I will not forget this."
She nods at him and retreats, heading back to her AT-AT. Ren closes the cockpit and begins the take-off sequence. He picks up his helmet, exactly where he had dropped it. After a moment of staring at it, puts it back on. He finds, to his surprise, that he is somewhat glad that Rey did not see him in his helmet, that their first interaction was not based on her knowledge of who he truly is. It gave him a truthful insight to her personality, and saved him from the mild humiliation of having to call General Hux to have a shuttle pick him up because his stabilisers got busted.
He heads towards the coordinates Hux supplied him with. After one last mental note to recruit the girl later, he pushes all thoughts aside. He has an escaped prisoner and a traitor to find.
AN: I have no idea where I'm going with this, but here, have a setting that demanded to be written. xD
Apologies for any possible OOC-ness, I'm still trying to grasp what these characters are all about.