inappropriately timed force bond moments (both nsfw and humor approaches)
dream-sharing
emotional bleed/transference (from rey, involving other parties)
inappropriate force bond voyeurism on rey/poe or rey/finn
mid-conversation force bond interruption
The Rise of Skywalker- Cross-galaxy chase of the Resistance
anything related to ben solo, but especially:
snoke confessionals with family or friends of family
returning to the light
smuggler life style
jedi knight ben
resistance-fighter ben
The Rise of Skywalker- Force Ghost communications w/ Rey
anything related to supreme leader kylo ren, but especially:
fall via coup
resistance fighter reconditioning (gen or nsfw)
force ghost visits from anakin/luke/rey/leia/snoke
defeat by the resistance, and subsequent aftermath
The Rise of Skywalker- Mole Discovery w/ Hux
canto bight:
shady weapons deals
picking up prisoners
recruitment
obligatory dinner party
general casino shenanigans
beach party
basically any reason you can think of to use canto bight as a setting piece
A note on romance: I will ship all of the new trilogy characters with Kylo Ren (except Snoke/Family). But I have no interest in exploring domestic-style takes on them. Thank you for understanding.
[She's very close to him now, and his instinct is to look for distance. But he's played this game enough with other smugglers, and bad clients. Not necessarily with a Dark Force user, but -- well, how different could it be.
He holds his ground. If he doesn't die, the first thing he is doing is swindling a voucher into the zero gravity spa from someone in this stupid casino.]
Look. Even if that was true, he's long gone by now. What do you think I can do for you? You should be picking on CBPD for letting him in here in the first place.
You're right. It's unkind of me to ask you to reveal your business dealings in such a public place. You'll feel more open to discussion aboard my shuttle.
[ she slides off the stool, pulling the bottle towards her like she plans to at least take it for a souvenir — along with him. ]
Your ship, of course, will be impounded and searched for contraband.
[Ben sighs with some obvious exasperation, the sort that you hear out of a man who's just found a ticket on their speeder. He smears his face in his one free hand, the other still on the bottle. But this is it. Either he goes with her quietly or he
Shoves the bottle away with as much force as he can manage and bolts around the corner like he's just discovered a slip and slide. Even if he makes it to the street, he could surely get enough distance to hide out until she got bored and left.
[ the bottle yoyos as physics makes things when someone is pulling and pushing and then not, suddenly. as a result, some liquor splashes up out of it and onto her clothes. she growls and throws the bottle against the wall as she turns to where he flees.
instead of bothering to chase him, she throws out one hand, fingers splayed, and thickens the air around him with the force. it slows him, like he's trapped in an invisible tarpit. it solidifies, freezing him there. ]
Ben locks in place mid slide, dropping him hard on the ground as his limbs cease to function. Any sense of calm melts away, replaced by fear and he finds that his struggling does -- nothing.
[ she takes her time walking over. there's no rush. she's in total control of the situation now, and the fear in his eyes puts her at a kind of ease. yes. he was the presence she had sensed, but he's no threat.
just a child. playing dress-up in his father's clothes.
she crouches over him, reaching under his jacket to pull the blaster he wears out of its holster. better get rid of that quickly. she lifts the barrel to his face and brushes loose bangs away from his forehead.
she lets the blaster linger there at his temple for a moment, as though wistfully considering. ]
Fortunately for you, you still have something to offer us. [ she pulls it back and tucks it into the back of her belt with a sigh. ]
She digs up his smuggled blaster, and he wants to close the eye nearest the barrel when she brings it up to brush his bangs away. But he finds that he cannot. Why did the police always seem to miraculously disappear when fights actually broke out? It was the one time he found himself begging for law enforcement to interrupt him.
She says something about an offer, but he can't begin to imagine what she is talking about. There was virtually nothing on the speeder, except for a case of bombs, some hand canons, and a few scavenged droids -- nothing the First Order would care for.
His fear ramps, and fingers start to twitch in an effort to close into a fist.]
[ tension flickers through her forehead. she tilts her head, feeling the pressure of his straining against her hold on the force.
this time when she touches his face, it's with her gloved hand. what starts as a gentle caress turns to a strangling grip under his chin without missing a beat. ]
You see, the trouble is ... you're right. [ she explains it as though patiently, to a child. ] FN-2187 is long gone. I'm sure he found some gutter to sneak out through. If I want him, and the weapons he stole, I'll have to lure him back.
Chin up, smuggler. You are doing the galaxy an important service.
[Her hand closes around his throat, causing his dark eyes to dilate and her soothing gesture fails to placate him. Lure him back?? For all Finn knew, Ben had never made it to Canto Bight OR if he had happened to spot him at the entrance, than he knew that he had run away and left him for dead. The fact of the matter was that the Resistance couldn't afford to go back for one man -- a man who wasn't even directly affiliated with them.
His teeth grit, and he feels something wriggling free, starting under her hand. Its a heated thought, to the tune of go to hell as his fingers finally manage to close into a fist.]
she feels it. the movement starts a spiderweb of cracks through her controlling grip over the air around him. she won't be able to maintain it around him much longer if he keeps fighting it.
he's dangerous. to her. to the order.
with a fleeting expression of alarm, she reaches her palm up and presses it to his forehead, subduing him into unconsciousness. then the effort of pinning him goes slack, and she is left crouched over an unconscious dude in the middle of canto bight.
when he awakes, ben is confined in an interrogation chamber. the lack of engine noise would let him know that they haven't left the planet, at least. kira leans against the wall in the shadows, watching him.
she can't return to the supremacy without the weapons that fn-2187 had taken. snoke would not tolerate her failure. her hand twitches where it's folded in the crook of her elbow, considering the consequences of that possibility. no. not an option at all. ben solo won't help her find them. not really. to pretend otherwise is just ... an excuse. to justify what, she's not sure, but there's a fixation she feels, confronted with his power.
surely snoke would agree that his proficiency with the force posed its own problem, unchecked. complication upon complication. ]
[Ben is slow to come to. The fog of the Force is heavy on his eyes, and he reaches up to rub them --
-- only to realize he is bolted down. Instantly, he starts to struggle, first in a state of semi-exhaustion, and then enough to rattle the various trappings of the chair. He only stops once he spots Kira lurking at the other end of the room.
His mind runs in reverse, trying to piece together where he was and how he had gotten there. It chooses to linger on the expression of alarm, and knowing that he had somehow managed to surprise her eases his nerves.
Just a little. His tolerance for pain might have been higher than he'd like to admit, but that didn't mean he went out searching for it.]
I would be happy to free you, should you provide me with the channel over which you established contact with FN-2187 to arrange your meeting.
[ this is a lie. she has no intention of letting him go, now that she knows what she knows. still. it would be nice to make progress in that other problem of hers simultaneously. she pushes away from the wall, sweeping towards him. ]
You forced my hand, Ben. I assume because you could not cooperate with so many onlookers. [ she smiles, but it seems as much to bare her teeth as anything. ] No one will interrupt us here.
[His wrists are sore now, so he doesn't make an effort to rattle it again. He figures he's made the point on that front. But it only takes a moment for him to get her meaning. No one will interrupt us here is just a nice way of saying No one can help you here.
He swallows and lets his head hit the back of the gurney, eyes cast toward the ceiling.]
But now that you mention it, I've been wondering. How did you lose a stormtrooper, anyway? I was under the impression that they were all indoctrinated.
[ her speech is casual, now, as though a mere distraction from what she's really doing. she reaches for him through the force, skims the surface of his mind. he's not afraid. at least, not as afraid as he should be.
it rankles her. ]
We do have an opening.
[ there. the light. she finds it the way one finds a thorn in their skin. it pricks her as she brushes against his mind. something there, waiting to wake. ]
You'd have to learn to run faster. And keep your mouth shut.
[He stops short in his speech, momentarily startled by the feeling of -- something. It first feels like something is brushing the top of his head without moving his hair. Its an odd sensation, the gets increasingly uncomfortable the more pressure is applied, until she finds what she is looking for.
Right. He's heard about this before, the thing jedi could do. Reading minds.
Instinctively, he squirms, head grinding in the back of the chair to try and shake off the sensation. All of his surface thoughts flip the switch to shrinking away, trying to get as far away from that probe as possible.
[ he picked up on even that. it causes her to bristle, and there's an undeniable anger written across her face. how dare he? how dare he show such promise, such ease, when she'd had to fight for it? scrape and bleed and suffer under snoke's boot for it?
and he, who already had the privileges of birth to a rebellion general, a bloodline like his and thrown it all away, he got to—
she drops her hands to her sides, stretching her fingers, trying to swallow that feeling. as snoke had taught her. let the outrage at her own inadequacy feed her power, spur her on to greater heights. ]
You seem nervous. [ she practically snarls it. ] Finally realizing you're over your head?
[It's like grease on his scalp that he can't wash off, fingers clenching to fists. He'd always been a physical man more than a calculated thinker, it doesn't occur to him that he could try and force her out some other way.]
Stop--
[It comes out slightly panicked, through gritted teeth. It doesn't even hurt, but he can't fight back and he can't run away.]
I don't know, ok? I don't know. They contacted me. The trace must have been scrambled. It doesn't lead anywhere.
[It tumbles out, hopefully before she tries to burrow even farther. He just wants her out -- and though nothing he says is untrue, he'll say just about anything to make it happen.]
[ she pulls back. like a rubberband, snapping back into place, her mind extricates from his. she rests one hand on the metal frame just above his shoulder and leans in, dropping her voice, affecting a softness as though her desire not to hurt him was some authentic earnest.
it's not. she wants to pry him apart. pick him open and take a look inside. but there is the objective to consider. ]
You can do better than that. You're going to have to, if you don't want me to go looking for myself.
[He relaxes almost instantly, exhaling heavily in relief. His eyes start to close, but startle open when her hand rests near his shoulder. His head turns as much as his neck will allow to eyeball her warily.
This would have been nicer, if he had any reason to trust her (which he doesn't).]
I don't know what else you want me to tell you. The Resistance -- they don't want to be tracked anymore than I do.
[ she drops her hand away, exhaling her disdain. it's not the answer she wanted, but she doesn't doubt the truth. no, he's too afraid, too spineless for it to be anything less.
(why would the force choose him?) ]
Will he attempt to make contact again?
[ they must have been truly desperate to attempt to ferry anything through him in the first place, right? it makes the likelihood seem higher. ]
[That has a little bite to it. He gains confidence when she puts some distance between them. Frankly, he hopes that nobody bothers trying. Even if it was the Resistance's sloppiness that got him into this mess, he doesn't actually wish ill on them.]
[ she cants her head to the side, considering him. ]
Perhaps we'll turn up nothing to help us track down the stormtrooper in searching your belongings. Perhaps not. But there are other ways you can serve the First Order while we find out.
[ there is, after all, one other connection that can be exploited. ]
How long has it been since you spoke with your mother?
[Of course it wouldn't be that easy. But he had to try. He goes limp in the chair, full of exasperation (and half an attempt at some form of bravado).]
The ship is a rental.
["Rental". But then she digs up the first thing everyone goes for when they try to question his legitimacy as a smuggler. This is a game he is practiced at.
Though, perhaps not with a Force user. It takes every ounce of his self control to stay as lifeless as he has already made himself.]
You're giving me little choice in this, Ben. I don't want this to be painful for you, but ...
[ she doesn't sound very sorry for that. actually, she will enjoy the pain that she causes him, once she has made it clear that it his fault alone for refusing to cooperate. ]
I understand. You've never felt what it's like to have someone reach into your mind. [ she cradles one hand against the side of his face, pushing hair away from his temple. ] I'll tell you. [ it's a deceptively gentle offer. she knows. she has had to feel it. she has not had a soft life, a wasted life, cast off from all the options handed to him at birth. ]
It's like putting your head inside of an ion drive. And you know it shouldn't hurt because there's nothing there, just this pressure bearing down on you, drilling its way deeper into your skull, and you can't stop it. And when it breaks the surface, it's like your whole being cracks under the pressure. It leaves fissures. And then it scrapes deep down into them and pries them wider.
[What did he do in his life to deserve this? It starts looping in his head in an effort to drown out Kira’s detailed discussion of how she planned to rip his mind apart. It only works half way — he still seems to catch the more brutal descriptions.]
And if there is nothing in there for you to take?
[Which is nonsense, of course. Almost everything he had said thusfar to her had been a nonsequiter, an attempt to make him seem less important than he was. It worked on almost everyone else. But this? He has no defense for this.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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He holds his ground. If he doesn't die, the first thing he is doing is swindling a voucher into the zero gravity spa from someone in this stupid casino.]
Look. Even if that was true, he's long gone by now. What do you think I can do for you? You should be picking on CBPD for letting him in here in the first place.
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[ she slides off the stool, pulling the bottle towards her like she plans to at least take it for a souvenir — along with him. ]
Your ship, of course, will be impounded and searched for contraband.
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[Ben sighs with some obvious exasperation, the sort that you hear out of a man who's just found a ticket on their speeder. He smears his face in his one free hand, the other still on the bottle. But this is it. Either he goes with her quietly or he
Shoves the bottle away with as much force as he can manage and bolts around the corner like he's just discovered a slip and slide. Even if he makes it to the street, he could surely get enough distance to hide out until she got bored and left.
(its the second one)]
no subject
instead of bothering to chase him, she throws out one hand, fingers splayed, and thickens the air around him with the force. it slows him, like he's trapped in an invisible tarpit. it solidifies, freezing him there. ]
no subject
Ben locks in place mid slide, dropping him hard on the ground as his limbs cease to function. Any sense of calm melts away, replaced by fear and he finds that his struggling does -- nothing.
His eyes move up to Kira's warily.]
no subject
[ she takes her time walking over. there's no rush. she's in total control of the situation now, and the fear in his eyes puts her at a kind of ease. yes. he was the presence she had sensed, but he's no threat.
just a child. playing dress-up in his father's clothes.
she crouches over him, reaching under his jacket to pull the blaster he wears out of its holster. better get rid of that quickly. she lifts the barrel to his face and brushes loose bangs away from his forehead.
she lets the blaster linger there at his temple for a moment, as though wistfully considering. ]
Fortunately for you, you still have something to offer us. [ she pulls it back and tucks it into the back of her belt with a sigh. ]
no subject
She digs up his smuggled blaster, and he wants to close the eye nearest the barrel when she brings it up to brush his bangs away. But he finds that he cannot. Why did the police always seem to miraculously disappear when fights actually broke out? It was the one time he found himself begging for law enforcement to interrupt him.
She says something about an offer, but he can't begin to imagine what she is talking about. There was virtually nothing on the speeder, except for a case of bombs, some hand canons, and a few scavenged droids -- nothing the First Order would care for.
His fear ramps, and fingers start to twitch in an effort to close into a fist.]
no subject
[ tension flickers through her forehead. she tilts her head, feeling the pressure of his straining against her hold on the force.
this time when she touches his face, it's with her gloved hand. what starts as a gentle caress turns to a strangling grip under his chin without missing a beat. ]
You see, the trouble is ... you're right. [ she explains it as though patiently, to a child. ] FN-2187 is long gone. I'm sure he found some gutter to sneak out through. If I want him, and the weapons he stole, I'll have to lure him back.
Chin up, smuggler. You are doing the galaxy an important service.
no subject
His teeth grit, and he feels something wriggling free, starting under her hand. Its a heated thought, to the tune of go to hell as his fingers finally manage to close into a fist.]
no subject
he shouldn't be able to do it.
she feels it. the movement starts a spiderweb of cracks through her controlling grip over the air around him. she won't be able to maintain it around him much longer if he keeps fighting it.
he's dangerous. to her. to the order.
with a fleeting expression of alarm, she reaches her palm up and presses it to his forehead, subduing him into unconsciousness. then the effort of pinning him goes slack, and she is left crouched over an unconscious dude in the middle of canto bight.
when he awakes, ben is confined in an interrogation chamber. the lack of engine noise would let him know that they haven't left the planet, at least. kira leans against the wall in the shadows, watching him.
she can't return to the supremacy without the weapons that fn-2187 had taken. snoke would not tolerate her failure. her hand twitches where it's folded in the crook of her elbow, considering the consequences of that possibility. no. not an option at all. ben solo won't help her find them. not really. to pretend otherwise is just ... an excuse. to justify what, she's not sure, but there's a fixation she feels, confronted with his power.
surely snoke would agree that his proficiency with the force posed its own problem, unchecked. complication upon complication. ]
no subject
-- only to realize he is bolted down. Instantly, he starts to struggle, first in a state of semi-exhaustion, and then enough to rattle the various trappings of the chair. He only stops once he spots Kira lurking at the other end of the room.
His mind runs in reverse, trying to piece together where he was and how he had gotten there. It chooses to linger on the expression of alarm, and knowing that he had somehow managed to surprise her eases his nerves.
Just a little. His tolerance for pain might have been higher than he'd like to admit, but that didn't mean he went out searching for it.]
Is this really necessary?
no subject
[ this is a lie. she has no intention of letting him go, now that she knows what she knows. still. it would be nice to make progress in that other problem of hers simultaneously. she pushes away from the wall, sweeping towards him. ]
You forced my hand, Ben. I assume because you could not cooperate with so many onlookers. [ she smiles, but it seems as much to bare her teeth as anything. ] No one will interrupt us here.
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[His wrists are sore now, so he doesn't make an effort to rattle it again. He figures he's made the point on that front. But it only takes a moment for him to get her meaning. No one will interrupt us here is just a nice way of saying No one can help you here.
He swallows and lets his head hit the back of the gurney, eyes cast toward the ceiling.]
But now that you mention it, I've been wondering. How did you lose a stormtrooper, anyway? I was under the impression that they were all indoctrinated.
no subject
[ her speech is casual, now, as though a mere distraction from what she's really doing. she reaches for him through the force, skims the surface of his mind. he's not afraid. at least, not as afraid as he should be.
it rankles her. ]
We do have an opening.
[ there. the light. she finds it the way one finds a thorn in their skin. it pricks her as she brushes against his mind. something there, waiting to wake. ]
You'd have to learn to run faster. And keep your mouth shut.
no subject
[He stops short in his speech, momentarily startled by the feeling of -- something. It first feels like something is brushing the top of his head without moving his hair. Its an odd sensation, the gets increasingly uncomfortable the more pressure is applied, until she finds what she is looking for.
Right. He's heard about this before, the thing jedi could do. Reading minds.
Instinctively, he squirms, head grinding in the back of the chair to try and shake off the sensation. All of his surface thoughts flip the switch to shrinking away, trying to get as far away from that probe as possible.
Now, the fear is there.]
no subject
and he, who already had the privileges of birth to a rebellion general, a bloodline like his and thrown it all away, he got to—
she drops her hands to her sides, stretching her fingers, trying to swallow that feeling. as snoke had taught her. let the outrage at her own inadequacy feed her power, spur her on to greater heights. ]
You seem nervous. [ she practically snarls it. ] Finally realizing you're over your head?
no subject
Stop--
[It comes out slightly panicked, through gritted teeth. It doesn't even hurt, but he can't fight back and he can't run away.]
I don't know, ok? I don't know. They contacted me. The trace must have been scrambled. It doesn't lead anywhere.
[It tumbles out, hopefully before she tries to burrow even farther. He just wants her out -- and though nothing he says is untrue, he'll say just about anything to make it happen.]
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it's not. she wants to pry him apart. pick him open and take a look inside. but there is the objective to consider. ]
You can do better than that. You're going to have to, if you don't want me to go looking for myself.
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This would have been nicer, if he had any reason to trust her (which he doesn't).]
I don't know what else you want me to tell you. The Resistance -- they don't want to be tracked anymore than I do.
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[ she drops her hand away, exhaling her disdain. it's not the answer she wanted, but she doesn't doubt the truth. no, he's too afraid, too spineless for it to be anything less.
(why would the force choose him?) ]
Will he attempt to make contact again?
[ they must have been truly desperate to attempt to ferry anything through him in the first place, right? it makes the likelihood seem higher. ]
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[That has a little bite to it. He gains confidence when she puts some distance between them. Frankly, he hopes that nobody bothers trying. Even if it was the Resistance's sloppiness that got him into this mess, he doesn't actually wish ill on them.]
Now, can I go? Please?
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[ she cants her head to the side, considering him. ]
Perhaps we'll turn up nothing to help us track down the stormtrooper in searching your belongings. Perhaps not. But there are other ways you can serve the First Order while we find out.
[ there is, after all, one other connection that can be exploited. ]
How long has it been since you spoke with your mother?
no subject
The ship is a rental.
["Rental". But then she digs up the first thing everyone goes for when they try to question his legitimacy as a smuggler. This is a game he is practiced at.
Though, perhaps not with a Force user. It takes every ounce of his self control to stay as lifeless as he has already made himself.]
We've been taking an extended break.
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[ she doesn't sound very sorry for that. actually, she will enjoy the pain that she causes him, once she has made it clear that it his fault alone for refusing to cooperate. ]
I understand. You've never felt what it's like to have someone reach into your mind. [ she cradles one hand against the side of his face, pushing hair away from his temple. ] I'll tell you. [ it's a deceptively gentle offer. she knows. she has had to feel it. she has not had a soft life, a wasted life, cast off from all the options handed to him at birth. ]
It's like putting your head inside of an ion drive. And you know it shouldn't hurt because there's nothing there, just this pressure bearing down on you, drilling its way deeper into your skull, and you can't stop it. And when it breaks the surface, it's like your whole being cracks under the pressure. It leaves fissures. And then it scrapes deep down into them and pries them wider.
And that, that's if you don't fight it.
no subject
And if there is nothing in there for you to take?
[Which is nonsense, of course. Almost everything he had said thusfar to her had been a nonsequiter, an attempt to make him seem less important than he was. It worked on almost everyone else. But this? He has no defense for this.]
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