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.
[ There's an edge to her voice which seems to bristle at his disdain for the power he has. It writes off the only thing she has ever learned to value about herself, and as such, she cannot help but take personal insult from it. ]
Wishing it would go away won't keep anyone out. But I can teach you to use it.
[No, she knows that he doesn't want to know quite that much. So he lets that response die on his lips, worrying at them with his teeth until he finds a better way to rephrase:]
Just enough to control it from happening at random. Can you do that?
[A little voice continues to remind him that he should probably not be accepting lessons from Snoke's assassin.]
[ She hasn't seen anything like what he'd done. The power that he has matches and perhaps even surpasses her own. Beyond that, there is the matter of how unusual it is. He'd been there, almost bodily, in her mind. She can still feel his arms around her. ]
But there are no control in half measures. If you learn, you learn all of it.
[He exhales shakily and rubs his hands over his face. They're still in hyperspace. This probably isn't the best time. But it feels like a "now or never" sort of situation. So he shifts to stand, shaking off some of his nerves.]
Alright, lets--get it over with.
[It can't take that long to figure out, right? Right???]
[ Still she leads the way out of the cockpit, back into the galley where the dejarik board has aged into dysfunction. She frowns a bit. All of the spaces on this ship are too cramped to be a proper space for training, particularly for honing the mind, but —
She shakes her head to dismiss it and slides into the bench beside the board. ]
I'm going to provoke your defenses. It will hurt, but you don't need to be afraid. Pain is instructive. If you embrace it, you'll be able to hone in on that instinct and seize it. [ It's how Snoke taught her, at least. No calm meditation, no reaching out with her feelings, just pain and leaning hard on drawing out the instinctual reactions and grabs for the Force, then reinforcing them. ]
[He follows her into the galley and is about to sit down when she drops that truth bomb on him. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he expected, but he is definitely no longer trying to sit down.]
You know what? I changed my mind. I’m good.
[Kriff literally ALL THOSE WORDS THAT JUST CAME OUT OF HER MOUTH.]
You just said the words “pain is instructive”. No thanks. I’ll stick to ignorance, unless you know another way.
[He is not about to do a round two of the first time they met. They don’t have nearly enough trust built up for him to trust her to hurt him in any fashion that was not lethal.]
[ The growling in the back of her throat seems ready to be like yeet I'm gonna do it my way anyway, no matter what you say. But she's clearly holding herself back for his benefit. At least she cares that much. 2%. She has 2% human empathy to know that she'll be in trouble and have a hard time getting him to do nice things like read books out loud to her again if she just smashes. ]
You wanted to know the way. This is it. If you refuse, you're leaving yourself open to Snoke. Leaving us both open.
[ And (potentially worse, in her opinion) he's going to keep dropping into her mind unannounced. Her fist curls against the side of the dejarik board. ]
Look, I don't want Snoke in my head any more than you do. There has to be another way. I bet the Jedi weren't the "pain is instructive" sort. What about that?
[He leans down some to get closer to her level -- it might be a little patronizing, but he also doesn't really appreciate her approach to this. He'd trusted her on his ship, they were running away together, and she wants to kick his ass right off the bat with some mind-bending bantha shit?
[ In fact, she looks offended by the insinuation that it's somehow the same. What she does know of the Jedi is that they're gross and terrible and they're responsible for all the pain in the galaxy. Obviously. They felled the Empire. ]
And even if I did, it wouldn't help you. The Dark Side is more powerful.
[ She says it like she's mulling it over, but presses her lips together and glances away hastily, grappling with some emotion. It's hard to pin down at first when she's trying so hard to suppress it, but Kira's rage is explosive, clinging onto what feels like an insult on top of betrayal after betrayal. ]
You put us in this position. You lied to me about a Resistance base, and still I stay with you on your ship. [ She has invested that trust in him despite every reason to the contrary. Survival has demanded it, and she has bent to necessity. ] And you have invaded my mind while I slept. But I cannot be trusted.
[ She slams her fist down on the dejarik board. Something cracks inside of it, a sickening sound. On second thought, it might have been the support post. It certainly looks like it's bending unevenly now. Kira doesn't stop to think about it. She slides out of the bench and gets to her feet, pacing away.
You invaded my mind on purpose. I did it on -- accident.
[He physically winces when he hears the crack, something dropping in his stomach. Despite his ownership of the Falcon, it still doesn't feel properly his -- and so damage to it hurts him more than her insults do.
His anger comes after that. He shouts after her after she leaves the galley.]
YOU STRAPPED ME TO A CHAIR AND TORTURED ME! You don't get to be self righteous about this!
Nope, she thought she was ready to just flounce and put this behind her, but he's going to be like this. He's a child who doesn't understand the ways of the world. That's the only way she can digest it. He thinks he knows what he's doing, but he's so far out of his depth.
She rounds on him, snarling. ]
And had I turned you over to Snoke as I had meant to, what do you think he would have done?! [ She's red in the face and breathing hard with the effort of holding herself back. Literally spitting mad. ] I have protected you.
[He stops short of chasing her to digest all of that. Protected him? When had she stopped planning to bring him to Snoke? He'd fled before she really had the chance to -- was she just going to cart him around the galaxy into infinity? That's kind of what they were doing now.
There's some obvious surprise on his face as he opens and closes his mouth dumbly, perhaps more than a little suspicious.]
...when...did you decide you weren't going to turn me over to Snoke?
[Let's just. Start there. There should be a "and why" attached to that but. Honestly he doesn't need to know why. It doesn't really matter. He's not dead, and apparently not on track for immediate death.
[ She seethes it like she begrudges him his power. Like she cannot stand to admit that he had bested her. He, untrained, unaware that he even had the Force. He had found a way to fend her off in Canto Bight, and he had fooled her again the day prior on Ryloth. ]
The information we want about the Resistance is in your head. I was charged with finding it. [ Something twitches in her expression — her nostrils flaring, the muscles in her jaw clenching as she slowly straightens her shoulders, reining something back in. Putting the animal back on its leash. ] I should have brought you to him then. When he realized I had allowed you to escape instead ...
[ Something flashes through her eyes. A memory. Pain. It's gone in an instant, replaced by something hard and bitter. ]
The Resistance lives because I tried to keep you from him. [ To herself. Because she was fascinated, enthralled, because she was weak. She had not explained to Snoke that Ben Solo had the Force. She had tried to keep him as hers. Now, she realizes, Snoke would likely just as soon replace her with him. She'd made the right call. ]
[He stays quiet, worrying at his lip in the silence. He wants to know why, as much as he decided it wasn't important. If he'd resisted her, then she had to know that she wasn't going to get what she wanted. Bringing him to Snoke would have been the wisest move.
But she didn't. The implications of that...]
Well. Not just because of that. Maybe partly.
[He tries to close some of that distance, weighing his options.]
Look. I'm sorry. It's not personal. I just don't have interest in -- whatever it is you and Snoke do. I don't really want it anywhere near me.
[Before she can storm away from him again, he'll reach to put his hands on his shoulders. He does a poor job of masking his fear.]
But I know its there -- something's always been there. Just promise me that you aren't going to make it worse and I'll--trust you.
[As much as he can, anyway. There's a lot of Kill Bill klaxons going off.]
[ At first she thinks he's maybe holding her still to keep her rooted there, gripping her to keep her from bolting again in a rage, but — No. It's more like he's clinging to her, holding on as a way of steadying himself. She searches his face, softening by half-measures.
For a moment she's quiet, reluctant. She ... can't ... promise ... that it won't make it worse. ]
[ Kira looks around at the Falcon in indication. That's as far as it goes. They don't get CNN out on Jakku, and the First Order is a hellscape of highly filtered propaganda, made worse by the insulated childhood she had with Snoke. ]
He was a smuggler and a traitor to the Empire. What does that have to do with this?
[ Let it never be said that Kira isn't focused. As far as she is concerned, the only value is in focusing on Darth Vader's failings. He is a lesson to be learned from, not an icon to aspire to. Still, it bewilders her — he has a legacy like that, blood like that, and he could not be more disdainful of it.
Doesn't he realize that he has everything she wants, and he dangles it in front of her like it means nothing to him? Kira — no, Rey, the little girl buried deep within — aches for wanting. ]
No wonder you can't be honest. [ But that's not what he's getting at. It's just her own separate conclusion. ] Vader destroyed the galaxy when he turned on the Empire. Is that why you're afraid of the Dark? You think it will make you into him?
[She makes it sound stupid, and it causes him to release her, a frown crossing his expression. He is definitely having second thoughts about trusting her with this information.]
You don’t have to say it like that.
[But yeah. He is. And he had not been the only one, he is sure. Its not like he has the Dark Side on speed dial, but he has definitely felt some unexplained, unpleasant emotions hovering over him in difficult times more than once before.]
[ He is injured, and though some malnourished part of her wants to reach out and touch him and make up for the way she can see that she is responsible for it, the better part of her is instead curious. No, fascinated. She has found something in him that is hers alone, that he does not offer to others.
It makes her properly respect that she is the only one who knows what he has with the Force. She had thought it impossible that he would not know, but … no. That is hers too. Possessiveness starts to swallow her, feet-first. ]
You're not him. [ It feels a foolish thing to say to Ben Solo, honestly, but he is afraid of the ugly pieces of his bloodline just as she has been. He can wave his legacy in her face, but she is the one with the power to relieve him of it. ] You're not him, and you're not your mother, and no matter how much time you spend flying around in this piece of garbage, you're not Han Solo either. No one is trapped by what they came from. You can be something better.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ There's an edge to her voice which seems to bristle at his disdain for the power he has. It writes off the only thing she has ever learned to value about herself, and as such, she cannot help but take personal insult from it. ]
Wishing it would go away won't keep anyone out. But I can teach you to use it.
no subject
[No, she knows that he doesn't want to know quite that much. So he lets that response die on his lips, worrying at them with his teeth until he finds a better way to rephrase:]
Just enough to control it from happening at random. Can you do that?
[A little voice continues to remind him that he should probably not be accepting lessons from Snoke's assassin.]
no subject
[ She hasn't seen anything like what he'd done. The power that he has matches and perhaps even surpasses her own. Beyond that, there is the matter of how unusual it is. He'd been there, almost bodily, in her mind. She can still feel his arms around her. ]
But there are no control in half measures. If you learn, you learn all of it.
no subject
Alright, lets--get it over with.
[It can't take that long to figure out, right? Right???]
no subject
[ Still she leads the way out of the cockpit, back into the galley where the dejarik board has aged into dysfunction. She frowns a bit. All of the spaces on this ship are too cramped to be a proper space for training, particularly for honing the mind, but —
She shakes her head to dismiss it and slides into the bench beside the board. ]
I'm going to provoke your defenses. It will hurt, but you don't need to be afraid. Pain is instructive. If you embrace it, you'll be able to hone in on that instinct and seize it. [ It's how Snoke taught her, at least. No calm meditation, no reaching out with her feelings, just pain and leaning hard on drawing out the instinctual reactions and grabs for the Force, then reinforcing them. ]
no subject
You know what? I changed my mind. I’m good.
[Kriff literally ALL THOSE WORDS THAT JUST CAME OUT OF HER MOUTH.]
no subject
[ Spoken with a tone of voice halfway between 'I turned out fine' and 'what were you expecting?' ]
no subject
[He is not about to do a round two of the first time they met. They don’t have nearly enough trust built up for him to trust her to hurt him in any fashion that was not lethal.]
no subject
[ The growling in the back of her throat seems ready to be like yeet I'm gonna do it my way anyway, no matter what you say. But she's clearly holding herself back for his benefit. At least she cares that much. 2%. She has 2% human empathy to know that she'll be in trouble and have a hard time getting him to do nice things like read books out loud to her again if she just smashes. ]
You wanted to know the way. This is it. If you refuse, you're leaving yourself open to Snoke. Leaving us both open.
[ And (potentially worse, in her opinion) he's going to keep dropping into her mind unannounced. Her fist curls against the side of the dejarik board. ]
no subject
[He leans down some to get closer to her level -- it might be a little patronizing, but he also doesn't really appreciate her approach to this. He'd trusted her on his ship, they were running away together, and she wants to kick his ass right off the bat with some mind-bending bantha shit?
No way.]
Teach me that way.
no subject
[ In fact, she looks offended by the insinuation that it's somehow the same. What she does know of the Jedi is that they're gross and terrible and they're responsible for all the pain in the galaxy. Obviously. They felled the Empire. ]
And even if I did, it wouldn't help you. The Dark Side is more powerful.
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[He is not going to win this fight, he can tell. So he just exhales uncomfortably and leans forward to hide his face in his hands.]
I just don't want anyone in my head at all, ok? That's all. I want to be left alone.
[Since he's Anakin Skywalker's grandson and all.]
And you haven't exactly been great about that for so--forgive me if I'm not really trusting the method here.
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[ She says it like she's mulling it over, but presses her lips together and glances away hastily, grappling with some emotion. It's hard to pin down at first when she's trying so hard to suppress it, but Kira's rage is explosive, clinging onto what feels like an insult on top of betrayal after betrayal. ]
You put us in this position. You lied to me about a Resistance base, and still I stay with you on your ship. [ She has invested that trust in him despite every reason to the contrary. Survival has demanded it, and she has bent to necessity. ] And you have invaded my mind while I slept. But I cannot be trusted.
[ She slams her fist down on the dejarik board. Something cracks inside of it, a sickening sound. On second thought, it might have been the support post. It certainly looks like it's bending unevenly now. Kira doesn't stop to think about it. She slides out of the bench and gets to her feet, pacing away.
She's not going to sit here and be insulted. ]
no subject
[He physically winces when he hears the crack, something dropping in his stomach. Despite his ownership of the Falcon, it still doesn't feel properly his -- and so damage to it hurts him more than her insults do.
His anger comes after that. He shouts after her after she leaves the galley.]
YOU STRAPPED ME TO A CHAIR AND TORTURED ME! You don't get to be self righteous about this!
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Nope, she thought she was ready to just flounce and put this behind her, but he's going to be like this. He's a child who doesn't understand the ways of the world. That's the only way she can digest it. He thinks he knows what he's doing, but he's so far out of his depth.
She rounds on him, snarling. ]
And had I turned you over to Snoke as I had meant to, what do you think he would have done?! [ She's red in the face and breathing hard with the effort of holding herself back. Literally spitting mad. ] I have protected you.
[ Like, to protect herself, but still. ]
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There's some obvious surprise on his face as he opens and closes his mouth dumbly, perhaps more than a little suspicious.]
...when...did you decide you weren't going to turn me over to Snoke?
[Let's just. Start there. There should be a "and why" attached to that but. Honestly he doesn't need to know why. It doesn't really matter. He's not dead, and apparently not on track for immediate death.
That is what is important.]
no subject
[ She seethes it like she begrudges him his power. Like she cannot stand to admit that he had bested her. He, untrained, unaware that he even had the Force. He had found a way to fend her off in Canto Bight, and he had fooled her again the day prior on Ryloth. ]
The information we want about the Resistance is in your head. I was charged with finding it. [ Something twitches in her expression — her nostrils flaring, the muscles in her jaw clenching as she slowly straightens her shoulders, reining something back in. Putting the animal back on its leash. ] I should have brought you to him then. When he realized I had allowed you to escape instead ...
[ Something flashes through her eyes. A memory. Pain. It's gone in an instant, replaced by something hard and bitter. ]
The Resistance lives because I tried to keep you from him. [ To herself. Because she was fascinated, enthralled, because she was weak. She had not explained to Snoke that Ben Solo had the Force. She had tried to keep him as hers. Now, she realizes, Snoke would likely just as soon replace her with him. She'd made the right call. ]
no subject
But she didn't. The implications of that...]
Well. Not just because of that. Maybe partly.
[He tries to close some of that distance, weighing his options.]
Look. I'm sorry. It's not personal. I just don't have interest in -- whatever it is you and Snoke do. I don't really want it anywhere near me.
[Before she can storm away from him again, he'll reach to put his hands on his shoulders. He does a poor job of masking his fear.]
But I know its there -- something's always been there. Just promise me that you aren't going to make it worse and I'll--trust you.
[As much as he can, anyway. There's a lot of Kill Bill klaxons going off.]
no subject
For a moment she's quiet, reluctant. She ... can't ... promise ... that it won't make it worse. ]
Worse how?
[ Not heartening. Not helping the trust. ]
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[His voice is frightfully honest. The muscles in his hands work nervously at her shoulders.]
How much do you know about my family?
no subject
[ Kira looks around at the Falcon in indication. That's as far as it goes. They don't get CNN out on Jakku, and the First Order is a hellscape of highly filtered propaganda, made worse by the insulated childhood she had with Snoke. ]
He was a smuggler and a traitor to the Empire. What does that have to do with this?
no subject
[Her body language tells him enough. She has no real clue. Maybe coming clean is a bad idea.
That's definitely what's going through his head right now.]
My mother is the daughter of Darth Vader. Which makes me...
[He lifts his fingers from her shoulders when he shrugs. She is smart enough to draw the conclusion.]
So.
no subject
[ Let it never be said that Kira isn't focused. As far as she is concerned, the only value is in focusing on Darth Vader's failings. He is a lesson to be learned from, not an icon to aspire to. Still, it bewilders her — he has a legacy like that, blood like that, and he could not be more disdainful of it.
Doesn't he realize that he has everything she wants, and he dangles it in front of her like it means nothing to him? Kira — no, Rey, the little girl buried deep within — aches for wanting. ]
No wonder you can't be honest. [ But that's not what he's getting at. It's just her own separate conclusion. ] Vader destroyed the galaxy when he turned on the Empire. Is that why you're afraid of the Dark? You think it will make you into him?
no subject
You don’t have to say it like that.
[But yeah. He is. And he had not been the only one, he is sure. Its not like he has the Dark Side on speed dial, but he has definitely felt some unexplained, unpleasant emotions hovering over him in difficult times more than once before.]
no subject
[ He is injured, and though some malnourished part of her wants to reach out and touch him and make up for the way she can see that she is responsible for it, the better part of her is instead curious. No, fascinated. She has found something in him that is hers alone, that he does not offer to others.
It makes her properly respect that she is the only one who knows what he has with the Force. She had thought it impossible that he would not know, but … no. That is hers too. Possessiveness starts to swallow her, feet-first. ]
You're not him. [ It feels a foolish thing to say to Ben Solo, honestly, but he is afraid of the ugly pieces of his bloodline just as she has been. He can wave his legacy in her face, but she is the one with the power to relieve him of it. ] You're not him, and you're not your mother, and no matter how much time you spend flying around in this piece of garbage, you're not Han Solo either. No one is trapped by what they came from. You can be something better.
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