Work Text:
There are several things one needs to know in order to comprehend the following events.
First, Kel Dors are largely regarded as a social and hospitable species. Ancient Dorin texts commonly refer to instances of Kel Dor clans welcoming newcomers with open arms, offering food and shelter. It’s a common joke among the galaxy that the iconic Kel Dor mask was only created after the Kel Dors befriended everyone on their own planet and needed more outlets for connection.
Secondly, Kel Dors behave very similarly to avians, having the same habits of chirping as an act of comfort, squawking when enraged, and even lashing out with their claws when needed. Building a home together is a foundational step in the average kel dorian relationship, and dancing is seen as the best way to initiate courtship. However, one key defining factor is that just as their young imprint on their caregivers, their parents imprint just as quickly on their children with their first chirp, forming a bond that is much deeper than any other in their community.
This leads us to our third fact: Kel Dors have an unexplainable instinct to simply know when a child is in pain, even if it is not their own. As they get older, Kel Dors learn how to control their subconscious urge to run and comfort any crying child in a twenty-meter radius, however there are times when this control slips and you find your baby being rocked in the arms of your neighborhood garbage-man or barista. It is a common tradition on Dorin to sleep with your child in a communal home in the center of the village, not only for protection benefits but because a single cry from a child will have every Kel Dor banging on your door. To other cultures, this would define children as a hassle, but Kel Dors see children as something to be treasured. To harm a child in front of a Kel Dor is to leap straight into the mouth of a sarlacc.
Knowing all this information, it is no surprise Plo Koon electrocuted the woman as he did.
Now, Plo Koon is not a temperamental man. On the contrary, his fellow jedi would call him the wisest and most level-headed of them all (Yoda would snark at this, but the old troll knows he’s too much of a menace to be even considered close to calm). As one of the older jedi, council members often go directly to him for tea and advice, the most notable being revered “Master of the Order” Mace Windu, who Plo used to hold and comfort as a child when shatterpoints threatened to split his head in two.
As both a Jedi Master and a Kel Dor, Plo Koon is especially attuned for being a Jedi Seeker: those in charge of finding force sensitive children and offering them a home in the Jedi temple. Now contrary to popular belief, seekers don’t kidnap children in the dead of night. Both often than not, Seeker missions tend to focus on rescue rather than information. Force sensitives, especially children, are sold at a high price to both slave operations and pleasure houses, so Seekers are in charge of both finding them before they get to their destination, or breaking them out immediately.
But in the cases that a Seeker finds a force sensitive child within a home, he will discuss the different options with their parents. The parents who want their child to stay with them will be given a pamphlet with everything one needs to know when raising a force sensitive, along with the contact code of the seeker. Then, meetings with Seekers are set every other cycle or so for them to check in on both the child and the parent. However, these cases are rare, as force sensitive children - whose tantrums can total homes and distress can short-circuit the electrical systems of entire cities - tend to be difficult to raise.
There are even some cultures who see force sensitives as a form of demons or bad omens. These cultures attempt to “cleanse their village,” often by killing the force sensitive infant. This brings us to the current state of affairs: Plo Koon stood in front of a woman twitching on the ground, holding the nearly drowned infant in his arms.
Plo had just finished a routine retrieval mission - a favor for his dear friend Jocasta Nu - when he felt the Force sharpen around him. The noise of the village seemed to fade into the background as his head snapped to the forest. Within him, he felt a distinct tug in both his mind and heart, yelling at him.
Run.
One minute Plo was standing in front of his ship, the next he was deep in the forest, running as fast as he could. He didn’t know where he was going, but something inside him did, and that’s all that mattered. The Force was screaming now, urging him to gorunchildpaindistresssavehim-
Plo broke out into a clearing. In front of him knelt a woman before a river, her head snapping back to stare at him. She had striking red hair common to Stewjon, and a body that said she was still recovering from a recent pregnancy. Under a different light, the woman would be beautiful, but her eyes…her eyes were wild. The blue that should’ve been a bright sky in her eyes held a thunderstorm, her pupils only a small speck in the clouds. Tears and snot ran down her face as she cried hysterically, not out of grief but madness, her arms shaking from the weight in her hands.
And in these hands she held a swaddled infant over the river. The infant seemed only a few months old at most, with flaming red hair and a chubby face. The baby was sobbing, radiating distress and pain in the Force. Without any hesitation, Plo began to chirp (somewhat mechanically through the mask), calling out to the baby in comfort. But the sound seemed to scare the woman, and Plo forced his mouth shut.
Everything in Plo wanted to killprotectchildprotectKILL but he was a Jedi Master first and a Kel Dor second. He bottled up the instincts and opened his mouth, most likely to comfort the woman who was clearly undergoing a mental breakdown of some kind, when the baby opened his eyes and the Force went silent. Plo was stunned with the brightest blue he had ever seen, and some kind of clear consciousness that indicated the baby knew who he was (outlandish notion honestly).
Small note to mention: Stewjoni, especially infants, are known to mimic sounds they hear.
Kel Dor instincts do not know nor care about the difference.
At that moment, the baby chirped, and Plo Koon was suddenly not a Jedi Master.
In a fit of pure rage, instinct, and nothing at all related to the Jedi wisdom he normally portrays, he lunged at the woman. Shocked out of her staredown, she let out an ear-deafening shriek and shoved the baby into the water.
When questioned later, Plo would solemnly swear he couldn’t remember the next sequence of events. All he knew was that one moment he was throwing himself into a full-body tackle at the woman, the next he was holding his new baby the infant in his arms. Plo shook his head at the convulsing body below him. Truthfully, he hadn’t meant to utilize electric judgement, but alas, the situation called for it. Besides, it isn't like she's dead! Just possibly paralyzed! And really, one can only use the ability in a moment of pure, compelling justice, so no one can argue that he did anything morally wrong. It was simply the will of the Force (the Force gave the impression of a deep, fond sigh).
Shrugging, Plo turned his head to more important matters. Some time during his…episode (what do the padawans call it? A crashout?), he seems to have taken off his outer robe and swaddled his the baby up, throwing off the baby cloth in the process. His The baby is silent, whether in shock from his near-death or from the Jedi Master holding him. Instead, he stares at him with large eyes, and smiles. Plo can feel his own dilating at the sight (yet another outlandish notion, Plo should really get more sleep). Plo coos, rocking his THE baby in his arms. The Force felt like a contented cat, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. Plo reached out to the baby in the Force.
Hello there young one.
The baby let out another chirp in response.
Later, Plo would learn from the village leaders that the woman was the mother of the infant (wrongwrongmybabyMINE flew through Plo’s head, and he had to physically restrain himself from squawking) and after witnessing the infant floating a toy through the air, she thought her child had gotten possessed by some “Force-giving demon.” She called the baby Obi-Wan Kenobi, a term used for exiling one from your clan (Plo’s instincts felt like hissing).
“No One of No Clan.”
Later, Plo would keep the infant in his lap as he flew back to the temple. Plo would hand the baby off to Jedi Healer Vokara Che and have to be shoved out of the Halls of Healing. Then he’d finally finish the original mission (that he honestly forgot about) and tell Jocasta everything, and she would fall on her ass laughing at how she sent Plo to retrieve a scroll and he came back with a child.
But all of that happens later. For now, Plo simply stands at the river, rocking his the HIS baby in his arms as they both chirped back and forth.