Finding your footing (June catch-all)

[no_light]

Characters: Kylo Ren and OPEN
Date: all throughout June
Location: around Keeliai
Situation: Catch-all post. In June, Kylo is still orienting himself on the turtle, trying to research his new home and just all around making sense of his new life.
Warnings/Rating: no warnings except for Poe thread (which has violence, blood)


Palace Gardens & Libraries – Sky Sector

Kylo Ren had never been all that fond of parks and gardens, though he did not actually loathe living things despite his best attempts to appear dark and gloomy. Yet oddly enough, you could find him on the old palace grounds in the Sky Sector on most days, a dark cloud of grumpiness amidst his pleasant surroundings.

Every day he visited the grounds, he would spend at least an hour or two meditating someplace quiet in the gardens, perched in the grass with closed eyes and a small frown of concentration on his face. He was searching out the source of dark power he could feel all over the city in small scattered spots, yet which seemed to be strongest in the Sky Sector.

Most times he visited his meditation would be followed by a visit to the palace library, where he would be focused on the rows holding books about the history of the land, the kedan, and this city in particular. He could be found floating stacks of books around, and grumbling about the lack of proper technology for his research.



around town, especially bazaars and the Courtyard of Public Opinion

When he wasn’t meditating, Kylo Ren could often be found awkwardly trying to mingle with the kedan in all the places where they gathered. He could be seen trying to start conversations with the locals and get information. His lack of social skills certainly was his biggest obstacle in this, as he would often offend people, or scare them away even if they were friendly at first. If you watched him long enough you would notice he was particularly interested in the history of the city, and among this most of all the Cultists he had only heard whispers about.

Comments

[no_light]

"I'm not scared of stitches!" Kylo snapped, sending Hux his best indignant glower already and really just all around trying to look like a man who wasn't pathetically bleeding all over the forest floor.

After he had been shot in the most blatant case of your kink is not my kink ever.

Fuck his life.

He hissed in pain as he removed his hands from the wound and wiped the fresh blood off with the edge of his robe. "I can take the pain," he said, more solemn now, "it can't be worse than walking here was." He squinted. "You do know what you're doing, don't you, Hux?"

[generalginger]

"You're not afraid of a thing, I know." Somehow, that managed to come out as not completely condescending. Hux was still just having a difficult time figuring out how Ren kept managing to end up in these sorts of situations.

He shouldn't have been surprised at all, and yet.

"Of course I know what I'm doing." Sutures couldn't be much different from sewing buttons or mending uniforms, which were a couple of the demeaning things he'd had to learn at the academy. He tried to make quick work of the stitching, but the unfortunate thing was that he only knew how to do a straight stitch, instead of the more medically-oriented ones.

[no_light]

"You better," Kylo muttered ominously, though he knew very well he was in no state to be making threats at the only person around to help him.

Nevertheless he was very suspicious of his skills, and watched as closely as he could while Hux worked. It was something to keep his mind off the pain, too. He couldn't help wincing whenever the needle pierced his flesh. "I have never seen stitches look like this," he remarked dubiously.

There was cold sweat on his forehead, and his breath was a bit shallow. "I think I want to sleep when you're done." It was the closest he could come to admitting his weakness.

[generalginger]

Hux was not going to admit that his skills in this regard were not as refined as they needed to be. He tried to improve on all of his weaknesses in his spare time, but these are the sorts of skills that fell to the wayside. After all, aboard the Finalizer, there was an entire staff who specialised in this stuff.

"You're going to be fine, Ren." He said it assuredly, masking his own concern. He didn't go as far as to claim that Ren was right about it not being that bad, though. That would've been such an easy lie to see through. When he finished, he bandaged Ren's side again, and washed his hands off with some of some of the water he had in a canteen and some antiseptic.

"Sleep will help. I'll keep watch for a while." Such a thing wasn't that necessary, but he was giving Ren the opportunity to escape while knowing that Hux wasn't going to hover. He was already considering courses of action to take while Ren was asleep, anyway.

Like swallowing his pride in favour of contacting someone he thought who might be able to help.

[no_light]

"I can..." He cut himself off, with just a defeated sigh. "I suppose sleep would help. I need a keen mind while my body is weakened." Even if everything in him chafed against making Hux carry both their weight for a while. He had survived worse, had kept fighting while injured worse. Snoke would have no less than to see him keep fighting till there was nothing left. But Hux wasn't Snoke.

He gritted his teeth against the pain as he dressed again, moving carefully so as to keep from pulling his fresh stitches. Once that ordeal was over, Kylo stood up to hide in their measly shelter, and hopefully sleep. Or maybe just berate himself for letting Dameron get the better of him.

But he hesitated before hiding himself away. His face worked through several different shades of anger and frustration before he finally managed to force out, "thank you." He didn't wait for a response, too mortified, really, that he had ever needed help at all.