Tu Vishan Awakening Party!

[ironwood]

Characters: Anyone and everyone!
Date: 7pm September 16th - the small hours of September 17th
Location: The Midnight Hotel
Situation: A Celebration of Tu Vishan's awakening!
Warnings: None.

T H E    M I D N I G H T    H O T E L

Tu Vishan Launch Party

It’s a party and everyone is invited! Klaus and the midnight hotel employees have gone all out and set up paper lanterns and festive decorations all over the hotel and courtyard. Eat, drink, and be merry to your heart’s content!

Comments

[sensitively]

Ren buried his nose in her hair, and Rey held her breath as he breathed her in; it was such a quiet, intimate exchange that she hesitated to spoil it by speaking. Through their bond she felt the warm rush of his affection, enveloping her like a blanket. She wanted to feel his lips on hers again as she had just moments earlier, that all-encompassing pull of his mouth drinking hers in as she drowned in the taste of him, but she reveled in the anticipation of it all the same.

That moment when he'd turn to her, open her lips with his, introduce his hot tongue — she could wait, albeit breathlessly, for it.

He was speaking of taking risks, of nothing worth value having ever come easily to anyone, and it resonated with her; none of her scavenging exploits had ever paid off unless she'd climbed higher, reached further, worked herself tirelessly to the bone to earn her meager payment for it.

His hold on her tightened again, and Rey decided she was more impatient for him than she'd realized. "Now it's your turn," she murmured, nosing herself into his neck, brushing her lips underneath the weight of his thick hair curling at his nape over his collar and letting it muffle her voice somewhat.

"Tell me of the stars, as you've seen them. Worlds and systems you've visited. Charts you've navigated."

Because regardless of whether it were while he was with the First Order or at his uncle's side, she knew he was a formidable pilot in his own right, and that he'd done his own share of exploring.

[no_light]

"The worlds..." He trailed off again, eyes closing as he simply basked in the gentle, affectionate caresses to the back of his neck. It tickled a little bit, he couldn't keep a small smile at bay. Without even noticing it or making such a conscious decision, he took to running his hands over her back in small, soothing motions. Just whimsical little pets, as much to reassure himself as her. I'm here. You are here. We are together.

Together being a good thing was new and frightening, of course, for the last seven years he had been taught that to care for other people would bring nothing but weakness and ruin. He chose not to dwell on it, not now, not in such a perfect moment.

It was easy to guess which worlds would impress her the most. "I have been to planets that are completely covered in water," he said, his voice hushed, a little bit absent-minded as he revisited the past. "Luke Skywalker once took me to Mon Cala. It is a shining blue-white orb, and when you fly low over the surface there is nothing but churning seas. But they have built huge cities under the water. And as a child I was taken to Endor, there are so many trees... You'd like the Ewok that live there. You'd probably make friends with them, since you like making friends with things that are small and belligerent." There was a definite note of teasing to his voice at these words.

It was better not to speak of the worlds he had visited for the First Order, he decided. Not to let the death and terror that had accompanied these visits taint their little rooftop sanctuary. Except maybe... "And then there were the discoveries... The Jedi and Sith may be gone, but the ruins of their civilisations remain. There are temples built thousands of years ago which still endure, and hide ancient secrets." He smiled. "I wish you could have seen them, and could have known the old power you sense when you walk these halls. When you walk their halls it doesn't feel like they're gone, it feels like they're just sleeping. Waiting."

[sensitively]

Rey closed her eyes and let his hands roam over her back, a sensation comforting and soothing in a way she hadn't thought she'd ever feel from anyone. She listened with fascination to the way his voice rumbled in his throat as he spoke, turned her face slightly from the nape of his neck to turn her gaze back up to where he did, at the stars above them.

She could envision their ship over the waters of Mon Cala, his and Luke's, the exhaust ports stirring the surface of what must have been endless, endless waves of blue like the ocean of her dreams. She imagined trees taller than the ones on Takodana, a forest more vast than all the dunes of Jakku. She smirked somewhat lightly when he quipped she'd like the Ewoks, winding her hands around him now, her fingers seeking him out through the depths of his dark robes and mapping him gently as a cartographer might a landscape. One hand wound into his cowl as it draped along the upper part of his chest, the other curling lower into the fabric covering his stomach.

But then he mentioned the Jedi and the Sith, and the temples that must have withstood eons, countless centuries of war and strife...and the secrets, the power that must have still emanated there, under lock and key. Enduring, persevering. Waiting. Ren's voice on his last word made her involuntarily shiver.

Her own voice was a whisper, in the dark. "...Waiting for what?"

[no_light]

Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Kylo could have sworn he could hear an echo of his own eagerness and awe in her voice. Or maybe she was just caught up in his, but it was still enough to feed his excitement. "Waiting someone worthy to come and find them," he said, his own voice as hushed as hers. These were tales which ought to be whispered. "Waiting for someone who sees, and is strong enough to seize such power where others would shrivel away in fear..."

He buried his nose in her hair, his attention turning inwards now though he still kept looking at the sky. "I wish we were there... I would show you such wonders. I feel like I've barely even scratched the surface myself. There's so much to discover yet." A fanciful daydream, he knew that even now, for back home they would be enemies and he would have to deliver all powerful secrets to his own Master, but for this moment while he held Rey in his arms he wanted to daydream of a world in which it was just the two of them.

[sensitively]

Waiting for someone strong enough to seize such power. She heard the awe and eagerness in his soft voice, but Rey was far too intoxicated with the nearness of him to be worried at that moment about the implications of what he spoke of.

A little voice whispered in the back of her mind: he wants power, still, and he will stop at nothing to get it. She hushed it, silencing it in her head.

"If we were traveling together, we could discover them, you and I." She tightened her hands in his robes, anchoring herself. "Just the two of us. No one else."

She reached up with a hand to gently tilt his face toward hers, away from the sky and stars. "I would go with you, if you'd let me."

[no_light]

He did still desire power, but these days Kylo Ren had come to realize that he desired Rey as well. And now, to think of a world in which these two wants were not mutually exclusive, no, one where they were two sides of the same coin...

He was as drunk on it as she was.

"I would let you," he vowed, his voice heated with passion for this world they were creating, and the many conquests it held. He let her turn his head, and met her eyes. No conquest sweeter than hers, for sure. "I would want you always by my side. We would fight together, and share everything," even these secrets, even the power, "and I wouldn't let you go anymore." He let a heartbeat pass. "And nobody would be strong enough to make you leave."

[sensitively]

Where normally as of late she would have teased Ren for such words, gathering perverse enjoyment from any discomfort he felt from her teasing, this time Rey looked at him without mirth or amusement, dark eyes solemn and serious.

Her hand, having turned his cheek, now slid to the back of his head underneath that soft, thick hair.

"Always by your side?" she murmured in response, eyes soft and questioning despite their solemnity. "Like this, every night?"

Underneath the stars, under each other — she wasn't about to draw the line to delineate exactly what she spoke of. She would have rather had him guess at that.