A Golden Fall

[no_light]

Characters: Kylo Ren and OPEN
Date: Through September
Location: All over Tu Vishan
Situation: Catch-all
Warnings/Rating: None yet



A - Tea house or healer's guild

Once released from the healer's guild as a patient, Kylo Ren could be witnessed returning to his regular schedule of mornings spent studying with Raine at the healer's guild, and letting Fletch torment him with medic training (such as mastering his personal nemesis, the LifePak), while his afternoons and evenings were spent waiting at the tea house.

He seemed to be growing increasingly exasperated with his waiter job, it might be time for a change of pace soon. There was only so much best behaviour he could show before snapping.



B - Fire Sector

As a resident of the Fire Sector, he would still be regularly out and about in the sector, and if you paid close enough attention you might notice that he spent a lot of time listening in, or peoplewatching. If he couldn't find the Cultists through the Force, it might be time for more scoundrel-like tactics...

Comments

[no_light]

"Of course," he replies, and then pauses. Nearly stills when he realizes the way she has worded it implies there is more to this story than there normally would be. He regains control over himself and reaches for the menu anyway, but pays it no attention whatsoever.

His eyes remain on hers, not judging, just inquisitive. "I have been told this place has its ways of bringing people back, but you sound as if you are speaking of something different." Before Tu Vishan, he would have dismissed such a thought, but this place has taught him a lot about dismissing things as impossible.

[celticromanstone]

She sighs. How much to tell him? How much to let him know? Should she admit to being Immortal? Not unless he's giving up that pesky virginity to her. "You've seen my healing." Best to start in a place that he understands.

Really, this would be easier if he were naked, and laying under her. Then, she could distract him with all sorts of things.

"This is an extension of that." She admits, softly. "No, I don't know how much damage my body can take." That's a blatant lie, but she's not sure that he could handle the truth.

Men are so much easier when they're naked.

[no_light]

It would be so much easier for her if she had him naked under her, but this is exactly the kind of distraction and weakness he seeks to avoid. If he knew that he's making it harder for her he would be very pleased indeed.

"Ah. I see." His shoulders slump a bit when the story ends up nowhere near as exciting as he had hoped, and he feels a little bit silly for expecting more at all. No great powers to be studied here. "I would offer to help you test it but considering our shared history..." He looks down. Yes. Awkward.

"Maybe we should just order. I did promise to pay, you should make good use of that."

[celticromanstone]

She reaches across the table and takes his hand. "I do not blame you, Kylo." It's the first time she's ever used his name. She wants him to know that she's serious. Heather doesn't want him to blame himself for something that she started. She'd known she was being drugged, and still she'd let it get to her.

"But I'm not eager to test the theory. Waking up in the morgue was not an experience I want to repeat." Ever. Again.

[no_light]

He starts slightly, brows arching. No darling. He acknowledges the seriousness with a small solemn nod, and a softening in his eyes.

"Then I'll do what I can to help ensure it won't happen again." Casual touches are still not comfortable, strictly speaking, but he gives her hand a quick, firm squeeze before withdrawing. "We're allies." Not friends, he still doesn't think in terms of friends, but ally feels right. "You can trust me in this."

[celticromanstone]

It's always interesting to Heather how mortals close themselves off. Immortals have to; it's the only way they can stay sane. Some would deny that, but she'd point to the endless pain that they carried and how crazy they went everytime one of the morals died.

"I would appreciate that. However, I do believe I've proven I can usually hold my own." She says, dryly. She hadn't made it easy for him, after all.

[no_light]

His first instinct was to scoff, for she didn't have the Force, and of course that made her weaker. But he paused with his mouth already open. It wouldn't be fair to dismiss her skill like that. More yet, it would be dangerous. Arrogance had nearly gotten him killed far too often lately.

"I suppose you have proven skillful," he conceded, and then added with a hint of ill-disguised mischief, "by the standards of someone without the Force." He arched a brow, lips quirked, daring her to take him up on this little verbal jab.

[celticromanstone]

Heather laughs and shakes her head. "Someone without the Force? And just what is the Force?" She asks, curious. She braces her chin on her hand. "And just because someone doesn't have it, doesn't make them lesser, darling." She drawls, creeping her hand across the table. She likes human touch.

"I think I've proven that too."

[no_light]

If it had been anyone else he might have scoffed or mocked, but with Heather he just chuckles in amusement. "Yes, you have proven that," he admits willingly.

He presses his lips together for a moment. The Force isn't a secret, though he hasn't gone around advertising his skill. "You can think of it as a kind of magic, if you so will. It's very versatile," he adds and twitches his fingers, letting the salt and pepper shaker raise into the air by invisible strings. "I can do that with people." He gives her a pointed look.

[celticromanstone]

"Telekinesis?" Heather asks, curious. Because that doesn't scare her. After all, she's Immortal, what's people having powers like that? "So you have been holding back on me?" She teases, lightly.

She looks at the salt and pepper shaker. She should tell him... It's only fair after all, but... She can't. He's mortal; she's not. It'll change things between them. And she'll have to watch him get older, while she never will.

"And here I am, only able to heal myself."

[no_light]

He snorts in wry amusement. "Only. Now your healing powers are something I would love to have. Why do you think I'm studying with Master Raine? I'm not interested in a medical career. You can heal with the Force, technically, there's very little that hasn't been done with the Force at some point in history, but it's not something I have ever learned. It doesn't work very well with the branch of it I use."

His eyes lit up, he leaned forward in his eagerness. "Just think, being able to heal yourself during a duel! It makes you near invincible, as soon as you can avoid taking a critical hit you can just wait till your opponent is defeated by their own injuries!"

[celticromanstone]

She shakes her head. "It isn't that simple, darling." She points out. "Spending too much energy healing knocks me out. Usually for more than a day, making me very vulnerable if there are multiple attackers." She doesn't want him to think that it's an easy thing.

She also doesn't want to get into it, much. Her Immortality is treading close to that line.

[no_light]

"Ah." Well, color him disappointed. Very, very disappointed. "So much for any hope your way of healing might be a shortcut to Raine's..." He sighs. Oh well, it had been a nice thought while it lasted.

"It sounds terribly ineffective, though. Can you control whether you heal? A skilled fighter is still dangerous even while heavily injured, but an unconscious one is useless."

Yes, still on that topic. He likes talking about warfare.

[celticromanstone]

"Remember, I cannot share my healing." She points out. Raine, obviously, can. "It only works on me. No matter what I would like." There are times that she's wished to share her Immortality.

She shakes her head. "I cannot control it, either. It just happens. Now, normally, the adrenaline keeps me going until I'm safe, but the possibility still remains for it to knock me out." She doesn't like admitting that, but Kylo won't kill her. She doesn't think anyway. Their fight had been an anomaly.

[no_light]

Under different circumstances he might be thinking of gathering intelligence, but he's far too relaxed, and doesn't think of Heather as a possible enemy.

So he just nods, looking thoughtful. "Adrenaline is very powerful. It's impressive what we are capable of when it's a matter of life or death. But it would be safer if you fought with others, provided they can be trusted. Have you ever done that?"

[celticromanstone]

She sips her drink, thinking about how to explain the Game. How does she tell him...?

"No." She finally settles on. "My world, it doesn't permit people to fight on the same side. We fight individually. Sword to sword, one against the other, in secret. No one knows who the winner is until one doesn't show back up."

She knows she's hedging, but she can't help it. She needs to tell someone, and Kylo is as close as she's gotten to a mortal friend in a long time....

"With our healing, there's only one way we can die." She finally says. "Oh, thank you." Their food arrives.

[no_light]

He listens attentively, though the frown's deepening on his face as Heather speaks of her people fighting alone. It's harsh even by the standards of his world.

But he can see she's fighting with herself, something he can empathize with well. So he waits patiently, and says his own thanks when their food is served, and even takes a moment longer to stir in it.

"Only one way to die, hm," he says quietly, picking up the conversation again. "One so final no manner of healing could restore you." He holds her gaze. They're both swordfighters, it doesn't need to be spoken out loud. And slowly, it sinks in how much she has just given away. His sword piercing her heart would not have stopped her. But now she's shared her secret with him.

He looks down at his own hand, holding a fork instead of a lightsaber now. Back home, nobody would trust him with such knowledge. "Then I'll watch out for your head, as long as you watch out for mine."

[celticromanstone]

She looks at him, blue eyes intense. She knows what she's given away. She knows that she shouldn't have done it.

"I've been looking out for my head for a very long time, darling." Heather almost whispers. It feels nice to unburden herself to someone. Though, he doesn't know the whole of it.

It's time to tell him.

"And by a long time, I mean over a thousand years." She says, honestly.

[no_light]

And that... that's a lot more than he could have expected. He's met a few people who look like ordinary people, yet are ancient, but he hadn't expected it from her. For a while he remains silent, dumbfounded into silence indeed.

"A thousand... you're older than Yoda." That's what he gets stuck on, really, and finds hard to move on from. He sizes her up again, subconsciously expecting there must be something to give it away, but of course there isn't. "Everything makes a little bit more sense now... Your skill with the sword, the things you shared with me... You must have fought and won many battles for your head."

And that is, in his world, a good thing.

[celticromanstone]

She sips her drink. "When I left, I was about a decade shy of being 1700." She explains. She shrugs. "I'm not the oldest, though I've been around more than I'd like to admit."

Heather smirks. "I've been a whore for most of that," she teases.

"As for battles? I've taken more than a few heads in my time." She sips her drink again. She's not admitting how many.

[no_light]

"More than a few heads, you say," he says, flashing her a teasing smirk of his own as he leans forward, elbows propped up on the table. He's as relaxed as could be now, and that's unusual in itself, but... It feels right.

"I believe we can safely say that your use of more than a few is very humble. I can't even imagine defeating your enemies for 1700 years." He doesn't even try to cover up his approval. "Kill to survive and become stronger with every victory, how wonderfully Dark Side."

[celticromanstone]

Heather shakes her head. "I've gone a century or more without taking a head, before. There's no need to fight, and I don't, unless forced to." Unfortunately, that happens more often than she'd like. "And it's not like we're wandering around taking heads without consequence."

She wants that to be very clear. "And, I wasn't defeating my enemies for my entire life." She corrects him. "For the first eighteen years, I was a priestess for my clan." Heather sighs and sits back. "Priestess, and then... my father's people, called the Romans, attacked us during a sacred rite." He voice drops. "One of them stabbed me. I eventually bled out and died."