i've got thick skin and an elastic heart (open)

[immunetolight]

WHO: Kylo Ren
WHERE: Fountain, river, 6I Inn
WHEN: 15 December
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Emo Boy ca. 2003. TBD.
NOTES: I only want one person on the fountain prompt; the others are wide open! I know The Last Jedi just came out so there will be NO SPOILERS for that movie in this post.

---

Fountain

The first sensation he's aware of before anything else is the cold. Throughout his training, throughout his life, really, Ren's always been aware of the push and pull of the Force and how it affects the living beings around him. This feels devoid of life, empty of the warmth that humanity brings and is ice-cold instead. It's the sort of cold that makes his legs and feet feel leaden and his attempts to augment his upward progress with the Force fail somehow.

He's been conflicted, yes, but how can the Force simply leave him? He has no time to ponder that particular conundrum before he's pushed up and out and the source of the cold is made known to him: he's in a fountain, of some sort, and there's ice along the stone rim of it. Such architecture isn't common on former Empire worlds and had often been destroyed. The Order has destroyed such things in former Rebellion planets in order to put up their own architecture, sleek and black, so this is something he cannot identify. What planet is this?

He does a quick assessment of his body and finds himself in possession of his limbs, his faculties, but one very important thing is missing. He cannot feel the Force, he cannot seek it out, and what he'd thought was simply shock from being underwater is now shown to be some sort of active suppression. He exhales noisily, his breath turned visible in the frosty air, and slams his hand down against the lip of the fountain with all the strength he can manage. The fountain looks no worse for the wear. His right hand may well be fractured.

He struggles to pull himself from the fountain and collapses on the ground, wondering how he'd wound up on this planet and how he can remove himself from it as quickly as possible. He needs the Force and he needs the advantages it gives him if he has no access to a weapon or warm clothes.

Inn

Eventually, he finds himself to the Inn. It's a central location in this village and while he has no more answers than he did inside the fountain he is, at least, warmer. He's currently wrapped in a blanket before the fire and there's a cup of herbal tea in his hand but he's not drinking it. He'd tried it, briefly, but it'd been too bitter for his tastes and his requests for sugar had been met with blank stares. Apparently that is something too precious to be wasted on something so mundane as tea.

He rolls his neck a bit, feeling the muscles and joints expand and contract, and wishes yet again he had access to the Force if only so he could ease the tightness there and assess the injury in his hand. He has rotated it some so if there is a break, it's not in the joint itself, but it hurts and he thinks it's already begun to swell.

When someone walks by, he gruffly offers to get up and offer them his chair but he doesn't want to vacate it. Instead, he wants to sit and watch the fire for a while and see if he can divine anything from it since his normal divination tools are lost to him.

River

It takes him a few days but eventually someone tells him that he has to work to be fed. Ren has never worked in his life for anything; during training, naturally, he'd done some physical labor but his master had gone easy on him since he'd been his nephew. He's never done any physical labor without the Force to augment his strength so when someone suggests he fish, he decides that's the task he'll take on.

He has a fishing pole made of a long, springy branch and he's got a hook attached to it which looks like it had been something else in a former life and has now been repurposed. There's bait only in the sense that someone's told him to dig for it and that had only netted him with two grubs and much frustration.

The only fish he manages to catch is smaller than his hand and when he tries to get it off the hook, he ends up dragging it across his palm in a jagged, surprisingly-deep laceration.

He seethes in his pain, instead of crying out. (Lies. He cries out loudly.)

Comments

[immunetolight]

There had been a man who greeted him at the fountain but the information he'd gotten had been less than enlightening. Ren had hoped for more but it seems that it won't be forthcoming, based on what this woman says.

"Someone greeted me, yes. It wasn't terribly enthralling but I guess I learned enough to make my way here. Is this a Rebellion-aligned planet? I don't see signs of the Order here."

[cleptes]

A flicker of confusion crosses her face before she decides to clarify what he meant. "I'm sorry, 'Rebellion-aligned?' That isn't something that I've heard being mentioned in this place. In fact, it is the first time I have heard of it. The same for the 'Order'. It doesn't mean anything to me."

Bela is polite enough when she speaks, but she is still unsure about what he said. Hopefully he would enlighten her.

[immunetolight]

Ren exhales quickly, impatient with not getting the answers he wants and needs. How could someone not know what system they're in and whether or not the Order was in charge? Unless...unless they were part of the Resistance and didn't want to reveal their allegiance.

"Who is the governor of this system? It's not a planet I'm familiar with."

[cleptes]

"That's the thing. We don't have a governor here. Everyone works together and they help each other when they need it." Which was a practice that Bela wasn't entirely used to, given that she mostly looked out for herself.

"Moreover, no one seems to know where we are. It's just called the 'village' and the residents come from all manner of places. Different time periods, even. I haven't been here for very long."

[immunetolight]

"A cooperative government will fail eventually," Ren says coolly. He has no love for the idea of a Republic, even though his mother had been instrumental in making the second Galactic Republic a reality.

He thinks the best way of governing is under one leader, one consolidated power structure. He doesn't mention that, though. "And you all came through the fountain I came through?"

[cleptes]

"Perhaps." There's a shrug. She can't tell what the future holds for any of them, but the residents seemed like a tight-knit group. Bela isn't a politician either so her involvement in the decisions made here would be minimal at best.

To his question, Bela nods. "All of us did, yes." A pause. "At least that is what I have been told by other people in the village. I was also informed that there seems to be no way out of here either."

[immunetolight]

"It seems wrong that this is the only way in and there's no way out. Has someone tried every exit? Has someone tried every single entry and exit to this place?"

His questions are relentless because he needs to know how to get out of here, how to get back to the life he's left behind. There's too many loose ends to be tied up.

[cleptes]

She lets out a frustrated sigh. It's not directed at him, but more at their situation. "I have looked myself. Searched the edges of the village and came up with nothing. And if someone did find a way out, I would assume they would have shared their discovery with everyone."

Or Bela hoped they would.

"You're really itching to get back home, aren't you?"

[immunetolight]

"There are things that need my attention, yes." Even if this woman knows nothing of the Resistance or the Order, she might still prove a threat to him in ignorance. He's hardly going to reveal who he is if she doesn't know it already on sight and he's exposed himself already by being without a helm or mask.

"But if there's no way out, there's no way out. I'll have to explore other methods of escaping if the fountain is of no use to me. I can't right this moment, though. I need to rest."

[cleptes]

"It's the same for me." Bela states plainly, not needing to go into any more detail than that. She's not going to ask him about his business because it was of no consequence to her.

Whatever world he came from, it didn't matter.

"Resting would be wise." As an afterthought. "So is eating. It's not much, but the supplies should be enough to last us through the winter." Bela realises that she's imparting a lot of information to a stranger but someone here did that for her. "You can also stay at the inn."

[immunetolight]

The Inn seems to be the place most suitable for wintering over but the idea of being stuck here for an entire winter is one that is absolutely untenable for him. He decides to go on a different tack.

"How long is the winter, usually? Do you know? Have you been here for a previous winter?"

[cleptes]

A lot of questions at once. She doesn't blame him for asking though. Bela would have done the same.

"No, this will be my first winter here. But if I was to go from experience in my own world, winter typically lasts for three months. We're already about two months into it."

[immunetolight]

"A typical cycle, yes," he says in agreement. It's the cycle of most systems that aren't extremes one way or the other and he thinks that if this one holds true to that, he may not have too long to wait until the weather warms and more exploration is possible.

"Until then, we're all trapped, aren't we? Prevented from further exploration by the weather and environs around us?"

[cleptes]

"That's pretty much it." They're stuck. Indefinitely. "Unless you feel brave enough to go out into the cold to explore." Bela has been outside a few times but only out of necessity. Gathering supplies like firewood.

"My name is Bela by the way." She says after a few moments of quiet. "Might as well introduce myself properly since we may come across each other again."

[immunetolight]

"Kylo Ren," he offers in exchange. He feels it's only fair to offer a name for a name and since she's volunteered, he can at least admit to his own name. As to coming across one another again, well. The settlement seems small and he expects that most people tend to cooperate and work together. He doesn't normally do such things except when necessary.

"What is there to explore? You say there's no way out, yes? Seems like it'd be useless to waste energy in the cold to push the boundaries of this place."

[cleptes]

"A pleasure." It comes out automatically, with an edge of warmth to it. Bela doesn't know him and he doesn't know her, but she will still be as polite as possible; unless he gives her a reason to do otherwise.

"Well, there is the forest and the outskirts of the village. I think there might be land beyond the village too, but as you say the cold would hinder the exploration."

[immunetolight]

"When it warms, I'll have to see just how far it goes. Until then, I guess I'm going to be bound by the charity of others."

The idea of it isn't appealing at all. He isn't used to relying on anyone other than himself and it seems this place forces them into some sort of cooperation for the greater good. It's not unlike what the Empire wanted, on the face of it - all parties working for the benefit of the whole. Still, it's difficult for someone as self-reliant as himself to be in a situation like this.

"You've been incredibly helpful, Bela," he says. This, at least, has just as much warmth as he can manage. She has been helpful, in her way.

[cleptes]

She's been as helpful as she was ever going to be with a virtual stranger. Which isn't saying much because all Bela has done is repeat information that was passed onto her by another stranger.

"You are welcome, Kylo." She replies with a slight smile. Of course Bela was going to recognise his thanks for her aid, because then maybe it would make her feel better about things. About herself.

"Was there anything else you wanted to ask?"

[immunetolight]

"At this moment? No. Unfortunately the things I want to know the answer to are the things that there are no satisfactory answers to," Ren says. He wants to know how to get out of here and while Bela's said it's not possible, he still wants to explore that for himself.

"If I think of something, I'll find you. You at least seem to be honest about it even if I don't like what the answers are."

[cleptes]

"I don't like to sugarcoat things." Bela admits truthfully. "If I were in your shoes I'd prefer someone to tell it to me straight." The more information she had, the more she could be prepared for.

"If there's nothing else, I'll leave you to your tea. Until the next time."

She gives him a nod and then turns to leave, heading out the door so that she could return to her home.