there's something in the look you give...

[sensitively]

Characters: Rey and you!
Date: July 24 - 31
Location: all over Keeliai!
Situation: Rey has turned Dark, for the Misspell Redux. all shall look upon her and despair.
Warnings/Rating: Might be some dark (h e h) themes, including violence and/or drug use. Will update warnings as necessary.



The tea she samples at the Fire Sector, in a little shop along the main marketplace, turns out to have peculiar results.

Initially Rey feels nothing out of the ordinary; she's a little more perfunctory than usual in her speech, though, and she doesn't speak much to Poe upon heading home that evening. But on the next day when she rises, there is something definitively different. Where she's felt only serenity before in her heart, there is only chaos and passion now. She can't shake the feeling that something is amiss, that she's meant for more, that there are wrongs she must right and ignoring them is impossible.

This peace she's been told of, through her brief learnings of the Jedi code, is a lie.

She's on edge, her irritation and despair becoming nearly unmanageable, and without another word to her housemate she stalks off to presumably let off some steam and exorcise some of the fury that's building up inside her.


Jade Dojo, Wood Sector: Rey will be fighting tooth-and-nail with a ferocity unseen before, against any opponent who dares take up the challenge with her. She will use her quarterstaff to fight if necessary, but she will prefer her lightsaber.


Drug Trafficking, Fire Sector: The Snakes' presence is everywhere here, and with it comes some shady business deals. As she roams the sector's walkways and streets in her restlessness, there are whispers around her of the usefulness and potency of the substance called Dust.

The Snakes are a convincing and corrupting influence.



[ for any additional scenarios, feel free to suggest something or pp me at spinebarrel! ]

Comments

[no_light]

Following his days as a child, Kylo's emotions were in greater turmoil than they had been in weeks, quite possibly even a greater turmoil than he had known since he stood on the bridge deep in Starkiller Base and pierced his father's heart.

It felt like all the scars covering a lifetime's wounds had been torn open, leaving the wounds raw and fresh, and exposed.

Everything was too much. The people, the noises, even the colors.

Kylo Ren didn't feel very in control as he stalked through the streets of Fire Sector, one hand on his lightsaber hilt. He needed to release all that pent-up anger, but the controlled, civilized relief found in the dojo or the Jagaiz ring would not suffice this time. No, he was stalking for prey. Anyone foolish enough to try and pick a fight with him, or to give just a flicker of hostility... some excuse, even the barest one, that would permit him to let go of the control he'd held on to for months, without simply discarding it in a flurry of violence.

The scavenger was the last person he expected to come across, but as soon as his senses picked up her presence nearby, the fury flared, and yet he felt an overwhelming sense of relief. She knew him, the real him. She may hate him, but there was no need for masks. He was so tired of the masks this place required him to wear.

He approached her without hesitation, facing her there on the deserted sidewalk. "I've been looking for someone like you."

[sensitively]

The two men she'd been conversing with, loitering around a vendor's stall in the middle of the street — members of the Snakes, both of them — looked nervous and then scattered at Kylo Ren's approach. Not that she entirely blamed them; Ren on a good day looked menacing enough, to say nothing of what she knew a bad day was like.

She stared up at him, defiant and unafraid. "...Oh? And what will you do, now that you've found me?"

There was an ease to her stance and a quirk to her lips that he may have noticed was unusual for her. In her hand, quickly concealed by slipping into her vest, was a pouch containing both a fine, black powder, as well as several colorful crystals, that she was obviously intent on hiding from him.

[no_light]

He had only caught a glimpse at the pouch she sought to hide from him, something he wouldn't eve have paid attention to if she had not in fact tried to hide it. But as it was, his attention was most certainly drawn to it. Whatever she wished to keep from him was likely to be used against him or Phasma.

"How about I ask you nicely what you have there?" he said, his voice pitched low, tone amiable. Far too amiable to be real.

Truly, he wouldn't mind a battle, though rather not right here in everybody's view. It would only get them into trouble with the authorities... yet again. A bad idea, now that the new police force was actually trying to instill some kind of law and order in Keeliai.

And yet there was something about her which distinctly unsettled him. She'd always stood firm against him, but there was something different about her confidence now...

[sensitively]

" — How about it's none of your business," she retorted smoothly, unruffled by the abrupt change in the tone of his voice. It was hers, what she'd purchased from the Snakes, and she wasn't about to turn it over to Ren and have him confiscate it from her, illegally possessed or not. She was curious about both the Dust and the Lucid crystals, and tempted to try them in the privacy of her home.

She attempted to move past him but Ren's sheer height and size made it difficult, and in attempting to push past another vendor's stall to get out of his path she dropped the pouch with the little clear plastic bag of fine black powder. Several multicolored crystals clattered to the street, as well.

Rey muttered a foul stream of curses under her breath, steaming with fury at having dropped them before bending to gather them up as quickly as she could.

[no_light]

He was just as startled as her when she dropped her secret load, and in his surprise he missed the opportunity to steal most from her, though he did get a good look at the powder and the crystals. The latter of which, he managed to snatch up several ones before Rey could retrieve them.

"I think it's just become my business," Kylo Ren said smugly as he held up his loot to inspect it, "I've made it mine."

He had a good idea what it was, there really weren't many possible explanations, but... He narrowed his eyes at Rey. "I don't think Jedi are supposed to dabble with drugs," he noted, suspicion, even a hint of wariness to his voice as he sized her up properly. Nothing matched up here, not even this simmering fury with which she had reacted to losing her treasures. Such fury...the exact same fury he was seeking to foster in her, but had always had to work so hard for.

[sensitively]

Rey scrabbled to retrieve what she'd dropped, but Ren was quicker — he seized several of the crystals and held them up to inspect them, lording over the fact that he'd taken her purchase.

She swiped at him, but it was useless; he held them easily out of reach. Rather than immediately Force-choke him or use her powers to immobilize him and cause a scene in the public eye, she tried a more careful approach first. " — Give them back! I bought them and they're mine, I don't care that the Jedi don't partake of them." She seethed, her brown eyes flashing with a hint of something darker under the surface than what normally lurked there.

"...I'm not a Jedi, after all. Remember? You said so, yourself, many times!"

It was true; not only had she not been properly trained as one, despite her strong connection to the Force, but right now as it stood she had no patience, no grasp of tranquility, no calm. She only knew the cold simmer of anger in her blood, and underneath it the despair she'd cultivated as a child.

[no_light]

"I did..." His speech had slowed as all his attention was taken up by this new intensity which seemed to have gripped Rey. It wasn't that she couldn't be intense otherwise, of course she was full of darker passions, but they had never seemed quite so close to the surface...

"I did say that," Kylo repeated, more firmly now. He narrowed his eyes at her. "And you have always been furious when I said so. You believed yourself better than me for your alleged moral high ground." He held up the colourful crystals. "I daresay your Master would be very disappointed..." He exhaled. "But you don't care very much anymore, do you?"

Could it be? People acting strangely... She had not changed in age, hadn't been turned into an animal, but could something have made it harder for her to squash what wasn't properly Jedi? He didn't dare hope she had changed completely, like Captain Phasma had. But just a nudge... a nudge would be enough to work with.

[sensitively]

"...I have no Master." This too was true; she'd heard Luke was on the turtle when she'd first arrived, but a much younger version of him who hadn't even experienced becoming a Jedi Master and training young padawans himself. He'd come to the turtle from thirty years earlier, only after the Battle of Endor, and therefore hadn't even known anything about his family or the state of the galaxy until he'd been told by someone else.

Such a man could have never taught her what she needed to know.

"So, no, you're right — I don't care what anyone would say. I want what I bought, with my own credits." She stared him down, seething. "So give it to me."

[no_light]

Well, well... This might just be getting interesting.

"Or what?" he gritted out, and flashed his teeth in a far too toothy smile. His hand tightened around the crystals. "Are you going to fight me for them, Jedi?" he drawled. "Lashing out in anger is the path to the Dark Side." He narrowed his eyes at her. Such beautiful fury, simmering, but so close to the surface... "You'll have to give me something better than childish demands."

Would she lash out? He was tempted to find out, to drive her to her breaking point and beyond. It would feel so good after these days as a child, all the complicated memories and feelings dragged up which he was struggling to forget again. The simple bliss of violence...

But then they'd fight, destroy something, and get split up, maybe even jailed to cool their heels, if they had enough control left to know better than to alienate the police force. And the chance to explore this seed of darkness within Rey would be lost.

"So we could fight," he amended, "or we could go somewhere else and you could show me what this is about... and maybe I'll return what is yours."

[sensitively]

She would fight him for them, tooth and nail — that, she definitely had no misconceptions about. But along with the desire to fight was the unbridled curiosity that reared its head towards him, particularly when he mentioned the Dark Side; Rey fought for several moments internally with her natural instinct to fight, before she grudgingly opened her fist to show him the black Dust powder concealed in the little plastic baggie she'd purchased.

"This," she told him, fixing her eyes on him to ensure he didn't steal it straight out of her hand, "is called Dust. The Cultists were said to have manufactured it themselves, and it causes heightened feelings that render one more susceptible to Malicant's influence." She closed her hand around it again, hiding it from prying eyes.

"I want to try it and understand how to tap into powers that Malicant would provide."

[no_light]

And just like that, she and her black powder held his complete and utter attention. "A connection to Malicant..." He narrowed his eyes at her. "I never considered that." He had never paid much attention to the drugs sold on the turtle or the people who took them, dismissing them as the simple vices of weak minds. A gross oversight, apparently. A clue had been right in front of him all along.

"Everybody says Malicant was evil," he pointed out, "are you finally no longer letting these simple ideas of Light and Dark hold you back?" He held her eyes. His heart was speeding up as he realized what else this could mean. "Are you willing to open your eyes and see the power of the Dark Side now, Rey? I want to tap into Malicant's powers, too. If this will help us do it..."

[sensitively]

"...Evil." Rey spat in derision. "People think in such black-and-white terms. It's all subjective; what everyone says doesn't mean anything."

She shook her head, holding his gaze. "Malicant had power. I want to know what kind of power, what it was like, if I can get a taste of it. I don't want to have others dictate what happens to me, any longer." Rey frowned.

He'd offered to teach her before, in the ways of the Force, and perhaps he would still do so yet...or, they could both learn, together, as he was suggesting. "If I allow you to partake of some of this," she intoned, waving the baggie containing the black dust in his view again, "I should get something from you, in return."