epidemiology | EVENT ▸ DIPLOMACY

EVENT ▸ DIPLOMACY

DIPLOMACY

As the skirmishes between wandering Mountain and Sea Clan groups continue in the Flowerlands, by this point enough attackers have been interrogated by Guild Ophelia to paint a compelling picture of unorganized chaos. Each time a skirmish is interrupted, both sides blame the other for starting the impromptu fight, claiming no knowledge of or participation in an organized cabal; the conflicts are entirely coincidental, they say, just a situation where enemies clash in neutral territory.

The Flowerlands are suffering, crops trampled and livestock traumatized, and more and more Mountain and Sea Clan people are terrified to leave their cities, lest they be set upon by warriors from the opposing clan. Under this type of political strain, Hanabira threatens to erupt into full-out civil war at any moment, with or without the sanction of the empresses.

Two weeks after Ophelia's arrival in the Empire of the Crashing Wave, Doro sends word: Empress Nama and Empress Youmi have agreed to meet and discuss the term of an alliance. Doro's castle will serve as a meeting place, but the difficult part is bringing the empresses there safely. You foreigners have already proven yourselves to be capable and invested in seeing the conflict to a peaceful conclusion, so Doro contracts Ophelia to act as escorts and guards.

This might just be the perfect opportunity to whisper proposed solutions to advisors or, if you're lucky, to the empresses themselves.

▸ THE RETINUE

Ophelia has a few different options if they choose to take Doro's contract: escort Nama or escort Youmi and/or guard the Flowerlands castle.

ESCORT ▸ EMPRESS NAMA.
It's a week's worth of travel to return to the Land of Celestial Mountains from the Empire of the Crashing Wave, so the sooner Ophelia starts out, the better. Skirmishes between clans still dot the forests and farms of the Flowerlands, and each time the retinue encounters one, they must decide if they have the time to interfere or if they must push on. After all, the longer there is no peace in Hanabira, the more dire the situation becomes.

When the group finally reaches the Land of Celestial Mountains, they'll find that the entire city is locked down. Guards bar the gates, but upon seeing Doro's seal, they'll let the guild members inside and explain the situation:

Mountain Clan rebels have stormed Heavenly Summit, cutting a large swath through the castle. Much of Nama's court and guards lay dead inside, with the rebels holding the remainder hostage -- including Empress Nama herself -- unless war is declared against the Sea Clan. The city guards are afraid to approach, worried that this will only anger the rebels further and cause Nama's death, and have directed all townsfolk to stay in their homes until the situation has been resolved.

The guards caution Ophelia not to try any rescue efforts themselves, and instead ask them to either find a building to barricade themselves in or leave the city. Of course, it's not like they're keeping a close watch on everyone.

Those who choose to slip into Heavenly Summit Castle will find guards surrounding it, trying to stop anyone from coming in as well as keeping arrows trained on all windows in case a rebel shows her face. Stealth is the name of the game, or at least enough brute strength to knock a guard out in one blow before she sounds the alarm.

Inside the castle, rebels stalk the halls of every floor, masked in the green color of the Mountain Clan. Some are heavily armored and some only wear peasants' clothes, carrying farmers' sickles; it seems as though the attack on the castle was planned very quickly, too quickly to evenly distribute armor and weapons. There are corpses left where they were killed, with splashes of bright red blood beside them; there are hostages huddled in the corners of rooms, wide-eyed but silent at the sight of foreigners ostensibly here to save them; and, in the heavily-guarded throne room, Empress Nama herself.

Fight through the rebel guards with Nama's help, or find a back door and snatch her up before the rebels notice. Either way, once Ophelia lays eyes on her, the magitek will project words in front of them that only they can see:

» EMPRESS NAMA
Leader of the LAND OF CELESTIAL MOUNTAINS. 23 years old. SPECIES: Human. MEDICAL CONCERNS: Lactose intolerant, recent blow to the head.

Nama doesn't ask questions, recognizing the foreigners of Ophelia as those who were meddling after the festival attack and trusting they're here to help her escape. Longbow in hand, she leads the group through secret passageways in the castle, insisting they rescue the nobility on the way out. From there, Nama suggests stealthily escaping the castle and quickly riding out of the city to the safety of Doro's castle, unsure who she can still trust in her own empire.

With Empress Nama and her surviving courtiers added to the retinue, it's time to ride back to the Flowerlands -- and hope you aren't chased by rebels along the way.

ESCORT ▸ EMPRESS YOUMI.
It takes half a week to travel from the Empire of the Crashing Wave to Doro's castle in the Flowerlands. Youmi and two advisors ride in a carriage, with an entourage of royal guards on horseback in front and behind; those in Ophelia who choose to escort this group will either be on foot or must find a mount themselves.

The journey is peaceful, allowing for time to make camp by forested hot springs and in farmhouses (in which case Ophelia might need to sleep outside, depending on the size) along the way. The Sea Clan guards are open to idle chatter with the foreigners, curiously discussing cultural differences and indulging in quick lessons in archery.

Everything seems to be going smoothly until the entourage enters Flowerlands territory and is confronted by a winged spirit of the forest, angered by all the recent bloodshed in his home. There is no time to talk; the spirit does not wish to negotiate, only to stop the crew from moving any further into his territory by any means possible.

The spirit calls the creatures of the forest to his aid, controlling them as if they are under some sort of spell. Ogres, imps, bears, and wolves are the most worrisome among his helpers. His own attacks come from the sky, diving down to slash at his victims with exceptional speed. Those archery lessons will come in handy here, because ranged weapons are most effective against him as long as he remains in flight. He can take an astounding amount of hits, and once he is weakened, will land on the ground to fight in close quarters.

Once he is finally defeated, his spell on the forest animals is broken, and even the most aggressive of them scatter. His feathers are black, but up close, seem iridescent in the light, differentiating them from a common bird's. Youmi's guards suggest everyone take a feather to prove they felled a legendary beast.

GUARD ▸ FLOWERLANDS CASTLE.
Until the empresses and their escorts arrive, it's very uneventful at Doro's castle. It's a smart idea to keep an eye out in case someone hears about the summit and tries to interfere, but so far, things seem to be peaceful. Take the time to bolster defenses, relieve a guildmate of guard duty, or explore the castle.

▸ THE SUMMIT

Youmi and her entourage reach Doro's castle first, her royal guards immediately making a sweep of the castle and the grounds to ensure there is no danger lying in wait. Once the castle is cleared, Doro and Youmi disappear into a guarded room to begin discussions. Youmi's advisors are left out of this initial meeting, making now the perfect time to start some discussions of your own.

Days later, Nama's retinue arrives, and Doro and Youmi (and the rest of her entourage) meet her at the castle gates. The two empresses step cautiously forward to meet each other, bowing politely. Moments later, Doro steps forward to gather Nama into a hug, which she gladly returns, giggling like the young girl she is. She's had a rough time, which she quickly explains to Doro, and asks if she can first have a bath and a moment to breathe. Doro and Youmi are more than willing to give it to her after hearing her experience.

Doro tells Ophelia they have their run of the castle until dinner tonight, when Doro, Youmi, and Nama will all be together in the same room with the team. Sounds like the perfect time to propose a plan, so you'd better finish up discussions about what to do! There's a bit of a time limit.

▸ OOC NOTES

If you have questions about this log or the overall mission, please ask them on the dossier. Questions about Futurology in general should be directed to the FAQ.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Only when he puts forth a real, visible effort to understand and in doing so demonstrates that maybe he has an inkling in the right direction does Rey take notice of his confusion. Of course. If he saw no value in people and their lives, then the only worth was strength. In commenting on hers, he'd paid her a compliment. It seems an absurd thing in the abstract, but nonetheless it is something she will want to address. Later.

First she must decide how to articulate an issue she has not entirely untangled her thoughts on. ]

He was.

[ She concedes that point (and its importance to the subject of her loneliness) readily, though she looks temporarily confused by herself as to why that's not quite sufficient to sate the impulse that makes her reach for Ben. Her hands run over the fibers of her towel absently, letting the sense distract and lull her into a sort of thinking meditative enough to get at what she's feeling.

Keith and Urahara and even Finn have all provided her with something she thought she'd never have. Company. People who care about her, and who she cares about. And Finn and Keith, they understand her in ways that others can't because they've been without. She can put her finger on it to that extent. But they offer her a companionship and a sort of understanding that is … light refracted through water. She still feels like what Ben has to offer her is different.

Her initial thoughts go to purpose, to her place in the galaxy, which she understands now as a function of his. In some capacity the Force connecting them reflects that they are tied together. To turn one another maybe. To unite against Snoke certainly. But that too feels incomplete. ]

I love Keith dearly. But you are connected to a part of me that I … don't fully understand. [ She struggles over those words, like maybe they're incomplete somehow. Luke had pulled this from her, with probing. She needs someone to show her not her abilities, but her place. And someone to hold that place with her, so she didn't just go from physically isolated to socially as a result of this thing that distinguishes her from people like Keith and Finn and even Urahara.

In a way, it is the conversations she has had with Urahara about how her powers are distinct even from his reishi that makes her prepared to articulate this now. She had felt it when he was first reassigned — the acute sense of loss of potential, of an opportunity no one else could offer her, though she had always refused it. Even before this bond, she'd felt that connection. She had chased that feeling in a hundred different directions, and everywhere she turned, she found that people who were just slightly like them, but different — they had communities of people like them. ] That no one else understands.

[ She smiles a lopsided, affectionate smile — not for Ben, but for Keith and for Finn and for Urahara most of all. He was the one who had effusively understood why she felt this way, well before she had. You know I won't be upset if you want to learn from him, as well. I think there's a lot in this concept of Jedi that I'll never fully understand, because it's such a black and white view, and I don't agree with that mindset. ] Not for lack of trying.

[ Stirred from her thoughts by the extent of what she has just given him, the depth of feeling that she has admitted to, she refocuses her attention on him with a rallying sort of inhale. By comparison to this kind of intimacy, getting flustered by his state of undress seems foolish. ] And it's not just the Force. That night, when I told you what I'd seen, when I decided to come for you ... [ The last bit she can't put to words, just a feeling. That there is a difference between the loneliness that requires companionship and the loneliness that demands a depth of understanding, of finding a soul that is the same as yours and recognizing it in another. It is the difference between not feeling alone in a room and not feeling alone in the universe. But she does know that it feels like it should not be the sort of thing that goes unreciprocated, and that he had felt compelled for some reason to protect her. From Poe, absurdly, but from Thrawn too. ]

Don't you feel it?

[ There's a twinge of vulnerability in her voice. Hope and fear yearning for something. She hates it. It reminds her of the way she had watched the skies for her parents, for some sign that they loved her, that they hadn't left her, that they were anything but disappointing. ]

[He absorbs everything she says with a predator’s hunger in his eyes, an analytical stare better suited for Thrawn than impulsive Kylo Ren. At some point, he mirrors the way she stands, both hands on the railing, bracig his weight. The wet cloth drips pink water off its edge. But even when she is done, he feels like he is missing a piece to the puzzle.

He looks away from her, when she mentions their kinship in the Force. By now, she had both rejected and accepted his guidance when it suited her — but that wasn’t what she was talking about. Not really. Its a disguise for something else that he can’t extrapolate.

Its her rallying inhale that draws his attention again, though he doesn’t look up. She’d decided to come for him, and she might notice how mentioning that draws him up. He’d already told her that he was not a damsel to be rescued, and though it had been a statement born of anger, it was no less true. And maybe that was why none of these moments between them ever made sense to him. In that way, she was like his parents — always trying to change him, always choosing incorrectly, never understanding enough. His expression sours, thinking of them and Rey’s foolish decision.

Again, he pauses to think. What did she think was going to happen, inserting herself onto the Supremacy? What had so fiercely possessed her? Surely it was not the Resistance. Not entirely.

A part of him wants to believe that. She had only come there for him — not for them. But that was a child’s fantasy.

Don’t you feel it?

He can’t verbalize his reply. “It” doesn’t have a definition. But he can feel whatever “it” is, and it feels — familiar, in a way he had almost forgotten through many years of isolation. It feels like it doesn’t belong to him, like engaging with it will invoke pain of some sort as much as it might bring understanding.

He is quickly trapped in his own cyclical thoughts, but when the ring completes, he still sees Rey at the end of it. And when he looks up at her again, he looks wary.]

I don’t know what it is either.

[But he is afraid of it.]

Edited 2018-02-22 03:20 (UTC)

[ The affirmation he gives her feeds it, whatever it is. He may balk at it, but Rey hunts it where it lives, like an animal that has caught the scent of blood. She drops the hand closer to him away from the railing so she can turn entirely towards him, and suddenly the distance between them seems much smaller.

She's the one advancing, now, and she's bolder than he is by a mile. ]

You're the same as me.

[ It's what everyone keeps saying; once she had chafed against the idea, resisted it and thrashed against the very possibility of becoming like him, but even then it had been because she feared what she had seen in him that she recognized in herself. And it captures as best she can what she feels, bursting at her seams to be expressed.

The hand she left on the railing slides forward now, perhaps too recklessly, to brush against his. A spark of heat from the contact sends a cold rush of dread to her gut but she fights the fear that comes as a result of how he had rejected her before. She has been emboldened by the curiosity he extends to her now. A slight tilt of her head searches him. She wants to pursue that feeling, explore it, understand it so that she can better understand herself and stop questioning. ]

[He doesn’t pull back from her, though when her hand finds his, he doesn’t reciprocate. His skin is damp and cold from the cloth he had been kneading, but it feels like she’d held a candle to it when she touches him. His eyes drop to their hands briefly before they move back up to her eyes.

Its hard not to see that night, on Ahch-To and the Supremacy, when he looks at her again. There are no tears this time, but there is that sense of understanding that suddenly comes flooding back to him.]

Rey.

[He wants to understand, the same way she does — perhaps more than she does. But he is older, he has had more failure in his life, and he knows better than to believe she will accept whatever the Force shows them. And that is why a warning laces his tone of voice. Neither of them even know what they are asking for or where they are going.

—he hears his own voice, warring with itself. This strange need to preserve whatever unspoken alliance they had found with the least amount if outside strive had blinded him to the path right in front of him. If she was so desperate for this — thing — then what did the rest matter?

Because came the angry snap of his paranoia. It makes you vulnerable.

But it makes her vulnerable too.

All the while, still not knowing what “it” is, his hand has turned over to accept her’s, opening to allow her fingers to lace between his, as if there was no possible alternative. The contact makes his hand feel numb, a tingle that sits uncomfortably in his knuckles. They were the same in some ways, and opposites in others. Their opposites seemed to magnetize them even more.]

...next time.

[It almost doesn’t come out when he speaks again. Next time, he would trust and follow her. The lump in his throat is impossible to swallow, and he finds that he can’t hold her gaze anymore after he says it. Fear takes over, and he drops his gaze again.]

[ Something in her chest loosens as his hand turns over. Water from the cloth he used to mop his wound makes his hand cool to the touch at first. That cold seems to have permeated his skin, so even when their fingers are laced, she cannot quite take of his body heat. But the contact itself seems to generate something better, something soothing that goes deeper and chases her doubts away, even as that warning edge of his voice plants a seed in the back of her mind.

This isn't going to go the way you think.

Maybe. But isn't the Jedi way to accept that she can't control that? To trust in the Force that brought them to this place? Luke thinks it's a mistake waiting to happen, as does Ben, but Rey … In this, he's right about her. She doesn't know enough of failure to know to shy from the possibility of it. Loss has not taken as much from her.

So she twines her fingers with his and contents herself with that. This time she doesn't push when he looks away, but joins him in gazing out over the gardens and savors the company and the silence that settles in on the heels of his promise. What he has offered her already is enough. His hand warms in hers, over minutes, and for a little while at least she is at peace.

It's some time later before she asks, ] Why were you asking about Thrawn before?

[The warmth coaxes his hand closed, eventually. The discomfort bleeds out of him steadily, though he can’t be certain whether that is because of the Force Bond, or because of some other factor. But sitting in silence like this, just sharing company with nothing to complicate conversation or morals...

Its nice. Calming in a way he cannot explain or comprehend.

There is another long silence before he answers her, partially out of fear for ruining the warmth in their hands.]

He is a Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy. I was surprised.

[His hand shifts in her’s, like he is thinking of taking it back before he chooses to confide in her.]

I do not trust him.

Edited 2018-02-22 05:21 (UTC)

[ Ben doesn't trust anyone. But for that very reason, usually, such a declaration would not need to be made. That means his distrust of Thrawn extends further than the baseline of his emotional turmoil. Rey takes a moment to think through this, weighing it.

His hand twitches somewhat, a reflex to retreat, and she rubs her thumb across his skin in a soothing gesture of tacit reassurance. She does not want to make him flinch away. ]

Why?

[ Her curiosity is genuine, but given the intensity of his assessment, she feels obliged to further qualify it. ]

He's nothing like what I expected.

Then you should be twice as wary of him.

[This time, he meets her eyes when he says it. The gesture keeps him from pulling back, a tether on its own.]

An alien in the Imperial army, let alone such a high ranking position is — unheard of.

[There is also the matter of his intense line of questioning and pinpoint ferocity regarding Rey. But he doesn’t want to talk about that. That is more commitment than he is ready for.]

[ It would be easy to set this aside as some kind of prejudice against his species on Ben's part, and maybe it is that too. The Chiss are (or at least Thrawn is) certainly unnerving in presence. But it seems more like identifying a prejudice in the Imperial Navy that he has overcome, a testament to something that Rey doesn't quite understand.

And really, Ben isn't asking for much in suggesting caution. Nothing he hadn't already committed to, himself, in taking particular effort to protect her from Thrawn. Reservations continue to tug at her, though. She tries to put her finger on them. ]

He told me that he started as their prisoner. [ She runs through the information he has offered her. ] But he believes in their cause because of what he saw in the Clone Wars. [ A series of contradictions, Thrawn. And then, the most confusing, ] He wants to see the Emperor removed.

[ This, perhaps, is the piece that offers context to why she might develop a relationship of any kind with him. There is a chance for him, and some of what he says makes sense. ]

That's as much as I've been able to figure out. That, and he's taken an interest in Poe since you mentioned him. I don't know why. He told me that you and I, we don't have anything he needs. But he's still offering to help me, and I know he's been speaking to Poe.

[Yeah, thats not a lot to go on. Unsurprising, since it was easy enough to figure out that he and Rey were talking Thrawn would not reveal anything to either of them that would compromise himself. All that information about the Emperor and the Clone Wars would only mean so much to a scavenger from Jakku, and it was an easy way to get her to sympathize with him.

But more importantly:]

Help you with what?

[Thrawn was not Force sensitive, so that is easy enough to inquire after.]

[ The simplicity of his question belies the complexity of what she feels Thrawn has to offer her. She takes a moment to decide where to start in articulating it. ]

This mission has made it quite clear where my failings lie. [ Off to a good start she already is struggling to admit that. It's in part a branch off of knowing more clearly that Ben values her for her strength and acumen, an unease with admitting weakness and how it will impact that perception. But it's more what all of that is wrapped up in. ] All I know of politics comes from children's stories. [ There is scorn there for her former self and the way she had told herself tales of the Rebellion and Luke Skywalker to help herself sleep at night and feel there was still good in the galaxy. ] Fantasies. I know now how disappointing the truth of them can be. [ Luke himself had taught her that lesson, if few others. ]

Beyond the mission, Poe told me of the New Republic's inaction as the First Order gained power, and Thrawn of how the Republic's failures to control the chaos of the Clone Wars gave rise to the Empire. [ She did not need to be told of their failures in the inner rim. She had seen the product of that inaction firsthand. Ben knows this, she is sure, without a need for her to dig into that particular wound.

She takes a few moments to figure something out. It's buried in the sands of her memories, somewhere, what she wants to articulate. ] Growing up on a planet like Jakku, I didn't think about politics. I was busy figuring out when my next meal would be. But politics made Jakku. [ It's not a distant, abstract thing. It has always impacted her. It's directly responsible for the way she grew up. And now she's in the midst of it. ]

I can't change where I came from. [ She wishes she could. She knows enough of the world now to feel shame in her ignorance. To recognize that she is nothing. But she had promised to not get hung up in that--to look ahead instead. ] But I can become more. Like he did. [ And there it is, the hints of her compassion extending towards Thrawn too. She thinks she understands him. ] You said it yourself -- an alien Grand Admiral. He understands these things quite well, to manage that when he started as their prisoner.

I want to understand better. I need to know enough to make sense of it for myself instead of just trusting what I'm told.

Edited 2018-02-22 18:06 (UTC)

An alien does not simply acquire his position in the Imperial Navy through hard and honest work. He is a manipulator.

[She must know that. Of course, he wasn’t trying to lecture her, just to get her to think. He has heard that belief in her voice before — when she spoke of Luke, before she found out his terrible truth.

Snoke’s manipulation of him still tastes bitter on his tongue.]

He may claim he wants nothing from you or I. But he is lying.

[He doesn’t know what Thrawn wants yet, but he knows enough to be wary.]

[ No. No, she does not know that. Rey looks skeptical.

But she also think of something she'd seen in the castle. Helpless hostages, a half-shut door, and when they'd overheard Thrawn talking with her about the risk to the Empress, they'd produced a way out. Trust, rewarding his compassion. Surely he could not have anticipated that. Surely … She shakes her head. ]

It's too late for him. He knows the Empire falls. It devastated him to hear it, but ... [ But what could he possibly want from them when he knows it's futile? She doesn't have anything to follow that. Not really. On some level, his prompt to reflect on Thrawn's tendency to say the right thing, to evoke her sympathy, feels wrong. Suspicious. But she can't quantify it or properly analyze it. ]

And now he's been given a way to prevent that through Hathaway.

[He sounds a bit incredulous when he says it, straightening from how he's leaned on the railing. Their fingers are still laced together, which feels awkward now that he's standing straight. Momentarily, he looks around, and then back down at her.

Yes, he remembers Thrawn's reaction to hearing that information confirmed. He hadn't given it much thought at the time, but if he'd somehow managed to gain the trust of the Resistance without a fuss, then something was wrong.

Or perhaps they were able to trust him because they were so removed from the Imperial occupation. Were he not the son of two war heroes, he might have understood. In fact, a piece of him even wonders for a moment what a world with the Empire might be like. Would it be better?

-- would he even still be alive to see it?]

[ With attention drawn to the way their hands are laced together by the way he's moving around, Rey almost feels like maybe it's a signal that they should … stop holding hands. Reluctantly she pulls her hand back. ]

You're talking about changing history. That's nonsense. [ Fairytales. But she thinks of Zari, and of Luke and Anakin, and she hesitates a little. Wasn't it impossible for history to stay the same, given what they'd experienced? She rubs the side of her head, suddenly very out of her depth.

Zari's going to hear about this later. Well, in the abstract, at least. ] Isn't it?

[ She looks quite uneasy suddenly. ]

[Kylo Ren's hand stays where it is, and instantly curls into a fist once Rey's leaves it.

There is an uncomfortable silence that hangs between them, and Kylo Ren works his jaw in the way he often does when he's nervous, or when he doesn't want to give information. Rey doesn't really need to know that he'd been attempting to manipulate Anakin, and it would probably hurt some of her trust in him.

On the other hand, it would make a compelling argument for not trusting Thrawn.]

What do you think?

I want to think you're being paranoid.

[ Wants to, but … who would know the Empire better than its biggest fanboy? She studies him, worry evident in the pout of her lips. If the choice is between trusting Ben and trusting Thrawn, she sees no contest. ]

But a recent Hathaway recruit comes from a world familiar with time travel, even if ours is not. [ And that's what settles it, ultimately. Zari's existence validates Ben's concerns in a way that pure speculation could not. Rey wrestles with it a moment longer. ] Is this why you wouldn't tell him about me?

[Her question puzzles him some. Yes, he was purposefully defensive when Thrawn had asked him about Rey -- but she couldn't know that, not unless Thrawn had specifically told her about the entire thing. And really, he couldn't imagine why he would.

So his brow creases again, confusion apparent.]

You are a grown woman, he can speak to you himself. He does not need information secondhand from me.

[Also: he doesn't like him.]

[ His confusion breeds confusion in kind. It's not defensiveness. She's used to weird mixed signals and defensiveness from him. But he seems to genuinely not know what she's talking about. ]

Finn and Poe are grown too, but you told him about them readily enough. He made it sound like when he asked about me, you-- [ But he is a manipulator of course. She pauses, rolling back over it. Had he fabricated it? ] I guess he was telling me what I wanted to hear.

Edited 2018-02-23 02:41 (UTC)

[Ah, so he had given all of the details, There is a moment where he doesn’t quite meet Rey’s eyes when she confesses it. There is no explaining it away, as he is quickly turned speechless by both anger (at Thrawn) and fear (of failure).]

I do not trust him.

[He repeats it, like that explanation should be enough for her. He doesn’t have the words or emotional awareness to explain that — yes, perhaps some part of him had wanted to keep Rey’s existance from him. Because of his Imperial ties, but also because he recognied in some shriveled part of himself that he wanted to keep her close.

And that meant that he could use her against him. Maybe she can’t make that leap of logic herself, but he certainly can’t put voice to it. To do so would be to acknowledge that he was weak. That he’d allowed himself to be conquered by the Light. That he’d failed.]

[ The way he falls back on this almost disheartens her, for combined with the sense she gets of his fear and anger, she can read it as perhaps he had simply not wanted to give anything at all to a man he did not trust. A reiterated declaration of the same. But … no, that's not quite it. This is an admission; he had done as Thrawn said, and now he offers mistrust as rationale for withholding information about her while giving it freely about Finn and Poe.

She studies him openly, fixing upon that feeling of fear, trying to understand. He's always so afraid of her. She reaches for him, sets her hand in a soothing position atop the fist he has made. The curl of her fingertips around his palm presses them gently into his grip. It's an unspoken reassurance, but also an unconscious offering of strength in answer to the weakness he's so afraid of.

She doesn't press it further, but rather, tries to understand that conversation with Thrawn better. Now that she recognizes that it was manipulation, the threads start to bare themselves. ]

He brought it up when he saw what I could do. [ When he saw more information than Ben would give him of the link between them? Yes. That tracks. And it supports the theory that maybe he was hoping to see some reaction to Ben taking steps to protect her. She hadn't given him anything though, about that. Had she? ] He must have been hoping that in bringing you up, I'd reveal something you hadn't.

[ If that was true, it meant two things: first, that Ben was right, and Thrawn saw a use for them; second, that she was the weaker link. Briefly she feels ashamed of that. It's tied up in the rest of her feelings of inadequacy, after all. The very reason she'd looked to Thrawn for help in the first place. She had exposed that underbelly to him. ]

[Her hand covers his again, and it draws his focus back to her. It enables him to watch her come to the same conclusions that he had, when it came to Thrawn's trustworthiness. They were out of his time, and he was out of their's -- they had no tether to one another beyond Hathaway.

Kylo Ren offers her a slow nod of agreement as she confirms his fears verbally. Thrawn had already picked up on the fact that there was something there, even if he didn't make sense of it entirely, and was trying to manipulate it. There were ways for him to play it off, but none of them were appealing.

Admitting that he was afraid of Rey's power would make him look weak. Admitting that he wanted to keep her around also made him weak. He couldn't win.]

We will have to work with him regardless.

[That was a truth he'd had to come to terms with two long years ago. He'd gotten better at swallowing down the frustration of needing to work with people he didn't like.]

But we can be mindful of how much we help him.

[He can sense her shame, and he finds that he cannot really blame her. She was so desperate to trust, where he was naturally suspicious as well as inherently selfish.]

[ This is new to her. She has never had anything that anyone would want to manipulate her to take advantage of. The closest comparison she can draw was Devi and Strunk, but even they had been lost and desperate; opportunistic, rather than calculating. She could not blame them for that.

But isn't Thrawn the same? Desperate, devastated by the loss she had informed him of? She tries to pull herself back from that instinct to reach for compassion, for understanding. He had taken advantage of it already.

Stars, she hopes Ben's not the same. But surely she would feel his intent. If this were a manipulation, wouldn't she feel it? Not his fear. He would not have been so angry, so hurt by the fear that she had betrayed him in some way. Whatever the case, she knows that she does not want to live her life second-guessing the people she cares about. ]

You're saying I have to be better than him at exactly what I'd asked him to help me with. [ She says it with a sort of wryness. ] It won't take him long to realize.

[ Would he guess it was Ben who'd made her cognizant? ]

I told him only of our conflict with each other. [ That should mean they're safe, right? She admits it because, well, Thrawn probably got something out of that. And Ben will be able to see what more clearly. Congrats this is now a strategy session. Trying to avoid having our secret relationship used against us before it's even a real secret relationship. Unless chronic handholding a relationship makes. Rey's really not sure. ] Of the Empire's fall, and that it was the Jedi that brought it about. But he thinks 'General Skywalker' is dead — your grandfather, I presume.

[His body language tightens at the mention of Anakin, and he pulls his fist back away from her in favor of turning to face her more fully. The way she says 'your grandfather' makes his mouth go abruptly dry. Don't think about it. Don't think about it.

While distancing himself from the well of defensiveness that suddenly rises in his chest, he tries to piece out everything she'd just given him. 'General Skywalker'? How was it possible to live in the time of the Empire and not be familiar with Darth Vader?

The information doesn't track. He files it away to investigate later and moves on.]

He only knows the bare minimum of present day politics. The command structure of the First Order. Who I am to them. [Sort of.] If that is all you told him, then that is an impression we can maintain.

[Guess that's confirmation that they're well and truly allies now. But before Rey can celebrate that victory or think too deeply about it:]

However, he knows you are lying about the Jedi. In the plural sense.

[That was one fabrication he didn't care to entertain, and he had trusted Thrawn a bit more than he does presently when he debunked that myth.]

[ The way he tenses leaves her with the acute sense that she has done something wrong, but— No. Promptly she squashes it with her nascent understanding of him. It has nothing to do with her at all, and likely no bearing on the intimate moment they'd just shared, especially given the point he settles on: an impression we can maintain. They're in this together.

So she doesn't reach for him, doesn't even feel any clawing desire to beyond the disappointment in the loss of his warmth and the satisfying feeling of skin-to-skin contact. This time, when he breaks it, she's not afraid that it might be the last time.

She doesn't get into the matter of whether or not Anakin counts as a Jedi for the purposes of defeating the Emperor. His tension tells her that bickering about two Jedi killing the Empire's head would only lead them down a path neither of them wants to take right now. It's too close to the nerve. ]

That could be a good thing, right? He already suspects I've withheld information from him. He won't suspect anything if I do in the future then. [ Maybe. Which brings her to … ] He already agreed to help me. I can't just avoid him, but I'm not a very good liar.

[ "Not a very good" wow she truly does not realize how bad she is. Even now. ]

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