So who talks first? | Calibrations

[happybeeps]

WHO: Poe Dameron, OPEN
WHERE: Poe's Calibration room
WHAT: Calibrations
WHEN: 3 June - 10 June
WARNINGS: Torture, War, Weapons of Mass Destruction



You step out into a hangar, half sheltered, but open to the air along one side. The sky is blue, and in the distance there's scattered chatter from resistance members passing by as Poe and BB-8 work. Poe's perched atop the broken wing of his X-wing, scorch marks on her belly suggesting they'd recently come out of a tough scrape.

Poe's still half in his flight suit, the upper half tied round his waist, his old jacket sitting off to the side, draped over a ladder rung with care. There's scattered tools and wires to navigate, a makeshift workbench set up with his helmet and blaster abandoned there, next to his data pad which flashes at him with some unread message, though Poe seems to be pointedly ignoring it. Looking quite out of place, there's a tooka doll, not the sort of sentiment one might associate with Poe, and beside it, and old model of an A-Wing.

Comments

[immunetolight]

"I don't use that name anymore," Ren says, visibly bristling. He doesn't want to be reminded of Ben, a failure, and he wants to be the man he's crafted himself into instead.

Still, the lingering echo of Rey in his head tells him to embrace Ben, to become who he used to be in this place so far from home. He shakes his head to clear it.

"You do that on purpose, don't you?"

[happybeeps]

"Push your buttons? Of course. You make it way too easy."

He climbs down from the X-Wing, reasonably confident Ren can't hurt him here, not really. BB-8 still seems cautious, trying to heard Poe away with a whine.

"I swear, you used to be funnier. The whole back and forth thing? Can't say I love this whole dark and serious persona."

[immunetolight]

Ren huffs out his annoyance and rolls his eyes. He doesn't have the patience to deal with Poe right now, especially with his power crippled and being within the mindscape of someone who isn't himself or Rey. This is unfamiliar territory, for the most part, and he doesn't want to be here. Still, there's a latent curiosity about what he can gather from this place and he wants to see what information he can pull to be used again later.

"I can't say that I've ever liked yours. In this, we're on even footing. Why am I having to endure your mind on your terms and not my own?"

[happybeeps]

"Oh don't lie. You used to love it," Poe counters easily, but then he fixes Ren with a pointed look, "Could be pay back for the time you forced your way in there on your terms, mm? It's not all that different, it's not like I can stop you any better now than I could then."

[immunetolight]

Poe actually has him there, against Ren's will, and he huffs again. Eventually he's going to end up getting the better of this damned pilot but he guesses it's not going to be right now. He wants to see his mother again and almost asks but that is weakness. That's something he can't show even though he'd felt his mother blink out of the Force just the same as he'd see the life drain from his father. It'd been harder with his mother, too, considering they'd always had that bond through the Force that went beyond anything physical.

"It's different when it's an interrogation and not a memory. You know that."

[happybeeps]

Thankfully, Poe isn't aware of the future that awaits Leia, and the shoes he'll soon have to fill.

"Not a fan of having you in my head either way."

[immunetolight]

"Not a fan of being here, either, unless you give me information that I need about your resistance. Then again, that isn't the true war. The First Order is a distraction. Did you know that?"

He doesn't even think most of the Order knows that, truly, and it's something he's kept close to his chest for a long while. The true struggle is between light and dark and that is a war he intends to win. If the First Order helps him get there, so be it.

"They eliminate my enemies, yes, but it's like swatting flies."

[happybeeps]

Poe frowns. "...a distraction?" he repeats, "These are people lives, Ren. Countless lives and families destroyed, and you're talking about it like it's some sort of game to you."

[immunetolight]

"It's not the real war, that's what I'm telling you," Ren says, bristling at that. Maybe the First Order is responsible for the deaths of millions but they aren't the true power in the galaxy. They never have been. They're just a tool to be used by other powers at work and he thinks Poe ought to know that.

"The real war is between Jedi and Sith. The Republic and First Order are just the means. You won't be able to do anything from here but...you have to destroy the Sith to destroy the Order."

[happybeeps]

"Like you destroyed the Jedi?" he challenges. Poe's long admired the Force, but this war, their parent's war, and every war before it, it's been them at the heart of it. "What do you think we've been trying to do all this time? Snoke leads the First Order. We're all ready trying to take him out. And you."

[immunetolight]

"It's not that," Ren says sharply. "Snoke isn't even an issue anymore, he's dead. It's the Emperor. He's alive, Poe, and he's the one pulling all of these strings. He's the one you should fight. He's the one you should be going after, not this...not the distraction of the First Order. Cut off the head and the rest will fall."

[happybeeps]

"..." Poe pales, unblinking a moment before he shakes his head. That can't be true. It's some kind of trick.

"If that was true why would you tell me?"

[immunetolight]

"Because...well, you'll know why eventually. Just take the information as good," Ren says. "I wouldn't give such a thing if I hadn't turned my coat and I don't think...I'll never come back but I can give her this."