CAPTAIN'S LOG: Starda-- wait, wrong franchise--

[scruffier]

oops, my bad



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part i
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[kylorben]

You're angry.

[Playing "I'm a mind-reader so let me state the obvious" was one of the quickest ways to annoy Hux (although basically everything Kylo Ren did annoyed Hux, which is something he could miss someday).]

[icanfix]

[Two can play that "state the obvious" game.]

You kidnapped me, assaulted my mind, destroyed an entire star system, and tried to kill your father. Of course I'm angry.

[Her voice is cold, but not raging; she's not trying to convince him of anything, just stating the facts.]

What's your point?

[kylorben]

[He crouches down next to her.] No one else is angry.

[icanfix]

[Rey clenches her teeth. Of course he would rub something which has been aggravating her in her face. If you let him upset you, he wins, she tells herself.]

Like I said, what's your point? [She's practically choking on the words.]

[kylorben]

[It's tempting to bring the dark side up in the face of her anger and pain. But no... this is a mild form of antagonism.] I haven't earned forgiveness and they give it to me regardless. You know it isn't fair.

[icanfix]

[No, it's not fair at all. But Rey is under no delusions that life is fair. Life is never fair.

Which is not to say she's happy about it. Or even okay with it.]

Get to the point, or go somewhere else. I'm busy.

[kylorben]

That is my point. You're alone again, Rey.

[icanfix]

[His words hit her like a punch to the gut. Alone again — she doesn't want that. Solitude, yes, but truly alone, the way she was on Jakku ... That is a nightmare.

She takes a moment to force back the tears and wrap herself in anger, before sliding out to glare at him.]

Not for long. Where we're going, there are hundreds of people who remember what you've done. [Her smile has an edge to it.] You'll find not everybody is as forgiving as your girlfriend.

[kylorben]

[He touched a nerve. Her anger is satisfying.]

I know. [His smirk is a mirthless mirror of Han's trademark smirk, even though there's a furrow between his eyebrows. Confusion that he doesn't want to show. Girlfriend?]

[icanfix]

[She counts her heartbeats to keep from strangling him — that smirk, that I don't know, make her see red.]

I don't have time for you.

[She slides back into the vent, this time going all the way so no part of her sticks out. (A part of her hopes he'll try to follow so she has an excuse to kick him in the face.)]

[kylorben]

You're not working. You're hiding.

[He isn't going to get on his knees to pursue an angry girl. He will, however, stand and position himself directly in front of the vent. She could get to his injured leg if she wanted to, and he would be lying if he said that he wasn't purposefully presenting that temptation. Baiting her.

He feels too vulnerable. He wants another taste of anger and pain, and he wants to manipulate someone into doing his will. It doesn't matter if his will is idiotic.]

[icanfix]

[Rey bangs hard on a loose part — both to prove that she is working, fuck you very much, and also because it gives her great satisfaction to imagine that she's banging his stupid head. But then she closes her eyes and goes back to counting her heartbeats until she's calm. Don't let him get a rise out of you, Han had told her. Though she had resented — and still resents — the imperative, when really it's Kylo Ren who should be told not to be awful to other people, the manta nonetheless steadies her, keeps her calm.

There's no reason to react to what he's saying. She's safe in the heart of the Millennium Falcon, surrounded by its comforting hum. It doesn't matter if anyone else is on her side; as long as she has a ship to work on, she has everything she needs.]

[kylorben]

[She's meditating. No one taught her to do that, and now she's getting away from him. He's losing.

He waits. Her mind calms further and his own mind begins to spark with annoyance, then anger. He needs an outlet. He needs something more than this overwhelming sense that he has lost control of his life and, right now, the quickest way to feel in control is to step back and crunch the Falcon's walls inward with a yell and a sharp gesture. A good meter of the paneling above Rey—far enough above her to pose no physical threat—buckles inward. The screech echoes through the halls.

There. That was satisfying.]

[icanfix]

[You sick, twisted psycho freak. Rey clutches her wrench, ready to use it to defend herself, but she doesn't emerge to confront him about that violent temper tantrum of his. There's a difference between courage and pointlessly walking into a dangerous situation.]

[mrrawrarrrgh]

[ It should be unsurprising that the resonating sound gains attention, and perhaps equally unsurprising that it's Chewbacca that comes to find out just what the hell is happening. Seriously, they just got the ship back, can we not get straight to trashing it?

He comes down the corridor and spots both the buckled panel and Ben at once, making it reasonably clear what's just happened. If wookiees were more given to sighing, this is where he would do so.

Instead, he ventures a steady, firm growl. It's carefully even and questioning, asking for an explanation while trying not to escalate whatever's happened here by being too confrontational or accusatory. ]

[kylorben]

[Did he ask to be abducted? No. No, he did not. Don't hold him accountable for damage.

Kylo is relatively calm (relatively) as he turns to face Chewbacca. The senseless act of destruction felt good.] Rey and I were having a conversation.

[icanfix]

HAH!

[Rey's not going to emerge from her safe space. Let Chewbacca handle the lunatic.]

[mrrawrarrrgh]

[ A conversation. Right. Perfectly normal chat, no doubt.

He looks at the damaged panel, and then back to Ben. The warbling cry is a further line of inquiry, just as to why the ship became involved in the conversation. ]

[kylorben]

Something needed to be destroyed. It may as well be this prison.

[Or, you know. Kylo Ren may have felt that it was necessary to lash out at something so symbolic of the past that he doesn't want to acknowledge. For what it's worth, he'll behave better after D'Qar.]

[icanfix]

[Oh he did not just call this ship a prison. Never mind the fact that, before she realized this ship was the Millennium Falcon, she called it garbage (or the fact that, after D'Qar, she will also view it as a sort of prison. But her reasons are better! And she's not the kind of monster who would take it out on a perfectly innocent ship!]