[open] Grace is just weakness or so I've been told

[letoldthingsdie]

WHO: Kylo Ren and YOU
WHAT: Day to day stuff, reading in the library, trying to figure out how to raise his new Mabari, etc.
WHEN: Throughout Bloomingtide
WHERE: Gallows Library, training courtyard, around Kirkwall...?
NOTES: Nothing of note but I will update if that changes, including a prompt once we start doing Tourney things

Who doesn't want a Mabari?

[The cool air and the rain that had come about with it wasn't entirely unpleasant, but still Kylo was growing tired of constantly training when he risked getting soaked through at any minute by rain. Today he finds himself wandering by the kennel master's stables. The sound of excited, barking, puppies filled his ears as he stops to approach. He recognized them as being the same as Padawan, though smaller with stubby legs and scrunched eyes.

One of them in particular had already grown attached to him and the snacks he had in one fist, barking shrilly for more any time he tried to deny it. When he tried moving on, the pup had decided to follow him before he could get away, it's little legs bounding after him and black fur sticking up as he tripped and fell on his face more than a few times.]

Go back.

[The pup didn't move, head tilting in confusion at the command. Instead he moved closer, sniffing Kylo's boots and running his feet up his leg while crying to be picked up. Take me with you, it seemed the creature wanted to say, as if he could talk. The pup wasn't taking no for an answer even as he stopped every so often to shoo him back to the kennel master. He looks around, as if asking someone else to take the little dog away.]

Burning the midnight oil

[Later in the day, as the rain continued to beat against the windows, Kylo can be found in the library, A book on the table before him and a squirming Mabari in his lap, a little snout peeking up from beneath the table every so often to look for treats. Kylo absently scratched the top of his head while turning patches every so often.]

'Of all the dog breeds that the Fereldans have produced, none are so highly regarded or so widely famed as the Mabari. Justly renowned, the Mabari are intelligent war hounds fully capable of understanding speech and interpreting complex commands.' Hmm.

[He looks down at the dog in his lap, staring up at him out of curiosity.]

Closed to Rey

[The two of them were spending a moment together in meditation, eyes closed and legs crossed, as he tries to focus on the Force moving in and out of the residents of the Gallows. Caedus - as his new Mabari companion was now called - was having trouble getting the memo, shoving his nose under Kylo's arm in an attempt to get attention and moving on to Rey to whine at her when that didn't work.]

Knew I should have asked the kennel master to take him back.

[He mumbles, answered by a disgruntled bark from the pup who shoved himself against Rey more firmly. Sadly, Kylo was stuck with him. As much as he knew that and as impatient as the dog's need for attention made him, he still found him strangely comforting.]

Wildcard
[ooc: hit me up if you want your own prompt]

Comments

wildcard, that shit we talked about in discord

[tagartist]

[ Chloe couldn't sleep even on the best of days, but recent discussions were making it even more difficult. With curfew enforced (and the option of breaking it feeling off the table unless she wanted to give people more cause to keep up with their bullshit), it was hard to not feel caged, trapped, on edge - and it left her pacing the halls to just try and get some kind of feeling of being outside when she really wasn't.

What she hadn't been expecting was to see a familiar face while she was doing said pacing. She slowed in her steps slightly when she noted Kylo Ren's rather unmistakable figure in the dimly lit halls (the dude was Big when not so many people were), hands finding their way into her pockets as she got closer. ]

Night owl?

yaaas, come bitch with him chloe

[letoldthingsdie]

I could ask you the same.

[He'd left Rey to sleep, while his own mind couldn't seem to be quiet. It was better for him to work through the restless energy rather than impose it on her anymore than they could control. She was already afraid of what might come to pass. The last thing he wanted to do was let their connection fill her with his own worries too.

It didn't seem to matter that he'd been trying to be on his best behavior, that Rey had been here for a year and had been well established as someone trustworthy and good. They only ever saw the rifters as lesser than. Now it was becoming this.]

Did you hear about the messages going over the crystals?

[tagartist]

[ She couldn't help but scoff at the question. Chloe was more than sure that there wasn't a Rifter in Thedas who hadn't heard the cyrstals or seen the announcement about these blood tracking devices dressed up like some reasonable proposition that no one should be upset over. The look she gave probably conveyed those feelings as well. ]

I don't get why this shit is even on the table. We haven't done anything, not even a handful of us to earn this kind of suspicion.

[ Her hand rubbed at her forehead. ] It's like dealing with my step prick all over again. Guilty until proven otherwise and even then, it doesn't fucking matter.

[letoldthingsdie]

That's what I keep hearing, that none of us has done anything, yet that won't stop them from chalking this up as a good thing or some kind of precaution.

[Because they were a dangerous unknown and that automatically put a target on their backs.]

Step prick? [The corner of his mouth twitches a bit, as if he might smile.]

Sounds delightful.

[tagartist]

I'm sure they'll use our outrage as some kind of justification, like we're all unstable and ready to blow when things don't go our way. [ Spoken with the tone of someone who clearly hates authority a great deal; her opinion might have been a little biased, considering. Oh well. ]

Delightful's a word for him. [ She went to lean against the wall, chewing on the inside of her cheek. David wasn't a topic she'd talked about with anyone, really, but here she was. ] He liked to assume the worst about me, use my getting angry as 'proof' he was right because only guilty people get angry I guess, and then wonder why I didn't respect him or do what he told me to.

[letoldthingsdie]

I've been hoping to avoid that - I didn't exactly have a cool head when the notice went up. If we can avoid putting a target on our backs, then all the better. We have to be smart about it.

[He almost stormed Thranduil's office with Iorveth. Now he's glad he didn't. Obi-Wan had managed to talk him down from just charging in, lightsaber blazing.]

Then clearly he doesn't understand potential when it's right in front of his face. Your anger was provoked.

[He didn't always get along with Chloe but he saw something in her. She was rough around the edges and perhaps that was what drew him to her. Her anger at her step father reminded him of anger he felt towards his parents, that they didn't really see him and only saw what they wanted him to be.

Sighing and crossing his arms, he leans against the wall beside Chloe, his gaze scanning the empty hall before dropping to her again. It was strange to feel like he could see himself in another person - and a bit scary. How did her world approach people like them who deviated from expectations?]

[tagartist]

Being reasonably pissed that someone is willing to put a fucking target on our back and then using justified outrage at the idea against people is fucked up. I don't think there's any way to be smart about things if they really want to go through with it. Assuming it's even possible. [ She wasn't going to be volunteering to get studied like Church had - it had made her blood boil how easily someone had gone about signing up for it. If they'd had no one to study, she assumed that it would mean they could never get the damned things working in the first place. She didn't care what knowledge it gained about their ties to this world.

But that was a rant for a different day.

He doesn't understand potential when it's right in front of his face was enough to throw off her anger anyway. It made her freeze up for a moment, glad she hadn't been looking directly at him when he spoke and her eyes staying glued to the floor as it sunk in. After the emotional roller coaster of the last couple of days - hell, the last few months, if she were honest, since she'd arrived in that stupid rift - it hit her a bit more than she expected it to.

Swallowing roughly, she folded her arms over her chest, almost like a barrier. Her voice was quieter, less filled with outrage, when she finally spoke again. ] ... He set up surveillance around our house to try and get more solid proof to use against me. I promised I wasn't ever gonna let someone invade my life that heavily ever again. [ And here she was stuck in the same damned situation. ]

[letoldthingsdie]

[His hands clench to fists briefly just thinking about 'if they really want to go through with it'. He knew that they'd need people to test their plans on. There was no guarantee they'd even have enough volunteers for conclusive results. His fists clench tighter when she talks about her step father.]

So he treated you like a criminal in your own home.

[His jaw sets tight, his expression dark. He had known mistrustful people in his time but hearing that it was a universal experience didn't exactly help his irritation. Having someone invade your space - your thoughts - was something he knew well. He'd thought it was necessary, if a bit stressful, having Snoke access his thoughts so as to guide them. He'd wanted to believe the Supreme Leader had been wise. He'd had no one else.]

And your mother? Did she know?

[He feels as if he might know the answer. He had experience with parents letting him down too.]

cw for abuse mentions blah blah you know the drill with chloe

[tagartist]

[ She nods. A criminal was a good way to put it. She may as well have been on house arrest most of the time, it had felt like, and remembering that put a foul taste in her mouth. The fights that had her sneaking out of the house, the smacks across the face when she pushed too far.

Too far like when she'd brought up the cameras in front of her mother and he'd gone to raise his hand. How her mom had taken her side for once. There's a stinging in her eyes, and she finally shook her head. ]

Not about those. He set them up without telling her. She knew... a lot of stuff, things I thought she'd put a stop to but didn't. But that wasn't one of them. [ Saying it out loud, she realized that it might have been because Joyce's privacy had been compromised and not because Chloe's had. She felt a stab in her chest at the idea and tried to swallow it back. ]

[letoldthingsdie]

So she allowed him do things that she knew would hurt you.

[He doesn't have to really push too hard into her mind to see glimpses of memories - of a cruel hand striking her down. It reminded him of Snoke, though what he had done to him had been more subtle. What Chloe experienced had been no less painful.

It made his hands curl tightly into fists. Seeing her struggle not to show emotion made him feel it twice as much. He presses his lips together.]

If it's too painful to keep talking about, we don't have to.

[They had other things they could be angry about together, after all.]

[tagartist]

[ She nodded in confirmation, her hand going to wipe angrily at the corner of one of her eyes so that she didn't visibly let any tears fall. It could've just looked like she was scratching, like she had allergies. Yeah. That's totally believable.

She appreciates his offer to change subject; a lot of people had a tendency to push when it came to her issues and she was always reluctant to give any of them because of it. She wasn't sure why it had been easier to get on these kinds of topics with him. It was... weird, to talk so openly without thinking about it much. ]

It's fine. He made her stop trusting me, so I'm not surprised she believed him over me most of the time. I fuck things up a lot, so it wasn't hard for him to do. He'd probably fit right in with the natives with all the conclusion jumping about people.

[letoldthingsdie]

[I fuck up things a lot. Those words were like a bucket of cold water over his head. How many times had he admonished himself in his time with Snoke? Whenever sentiment or weakness had made its way in he'd tore into himself long after Snoke had stopped hurting him - physically or emotionally. He'd told himself that it was something he had to endure to become as strong as he needed to be, as strong as his grandfather had been.

You're afraid that you'll never be as strong as Darth Vader. Rey had been a shock to his system, seeing his fears that he'd tried so hard to keep down. His father had seen them too, had tried to help him be strong enough to fight the forces that tore him in two. He'd killed him for it, hoping it would free him from the pain only for Snoke to deride him and tell him it hadn't been enough and that he'd been too weak even in doing that.]

No. [His mouth curls in almost an angry snarl.] No you don't. You- you're just doing what you have to do. You were trying to survive.

[He blinks, his eyes burning.]

You didn't do anything wrong. They did. They failed you.

[Just like his parents had failed him. Parents seemed to have a nasty habit of failing their children right up until it was too late, he thinks.]

[tagartist]

[ Chloe practically jumped when she heard the anger, flinching in response to it because she was so used to anger being directed at her rather than on her behalf. The words that followed made it clear he was only angry with the situation - projected, most like, given that he hadn't known her situation at home entirely, even if she'd opened up more about it to him than most. Surviving was true, but it was hard to see it that way, given how long she'd been messing things up.

They failed you. It was hard to see it like that. Her dad had died. Her mom was also just trying to survive. David... David had never been someone who was supposed to be there for her, he wasn't her father, she was just an inherited problem. And still he'd gotten a job, supported her family, kept them from being evicted even if just barely. He had gone out of his way to rescue Max from Jefferson and had killed him for her when she'd been murdered.

And now she was going to let them all die in a storm she could prevent. Who had failed who? ]

I... I don't know. [ Her voice felt tired and weak, hardly the biting and confident tone she usually carried. ] I was selfish. Am selfish. I didn't think about how hard of a time Mom was having, I just thought about my own pain. I should have -- [ Died for her. She should go back and die for her, like her mom would do if the positions were reversed without even thinking about it.

She ran a hand through her hair, gripping it in her fists after a moment. ]

Shit, we got so off topic. I'm sorry.