riverviewlogs | fun times with darth emo

Entry tags:

fun times with darth emo

who: Kylo Ren & OPEN
what: Catch-all from now until whenever he canon updates. For the training prompt, I am nnnnnnot exactly looking to write out actual sparring, but we can definitely write pre-sparring and the aftermath.
when: January! Maybe part of February, too.
where: The river, a gym, the abandoned city, communal housing, annnnd around
warnings: None yet

i. training montage
[ His situation, such as it is, is no excuse to slack on his training. Ren may not be able to serve the Supreme Leader here, but at least he can ensure that he will be able to serve to the best of his abilities when he finds his way back to his rightful place.

So, he finds time to meditate each day, and he trains when he can, honing his skills with the Force. Often, this takes him to quieter parts of the city, near the river or on the outskirts, where he can train with his lightsaber in relative solitude.

Sometimes, too, he'll actually make an appearance at one of the city's gyms, to spar. Gotta keep those combat skills sharp. ]

ii. exploring
[ More and more, Kylo ventures out to the fence and beyond, exploring the forests and the abandoned city. It's dangerous to go alone, sure, but he's confident in his abilities. It's about the only thing he's certain of, and if nothing else, it affords him the opportunity to clear his (many) frustrations from his head and get some more aggression out against the odd creatures he encounters from time to time, should they prove to be hostile.

It feels good to use his lightsaber against things without having to concern himself with the authorities. ]

iii. chopped
[ SOMETIMES KYLO REN HANGS OUT AT HOME, IN THE COMMUNAL HOUSING AREA. Even though he has a private room, he still has to make use of the public kitchen, so, uh. Yeah idk. If you want to hang out while Darth Vader's antisocial grandson tries to cook food as quickly as possible, go for it. He can yell, he can throw things, but he can't exactly stop you. It's a free... building... ]

iv. wildcard
[ You know what to do. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Relative solitude is always a good place for training. However, crazy minds think alike, and Ivar has the same idea. He's heading down by the river when he hears the curious thrumming through the air, almost the hum of something alive. He sits back in his wheelchair when he sees Kylo Ren. He watches for a minute or two, finding the weapon curious. It looks rather like a sword, though it appears to made of lasers. It looks impressive enough, but Ivar notices what appears to be an obvious flaw.

Ivar being Ivar, he of course has to say something when there's a moments pause in Kylo's training.]

Those bits on the side can't be practical. How do you not cut your thumbs off every time you wield it?

[ He isn't surprised by the young man's approach, and though Ren continues to practice his form in spite of it, it's clear in his body language-- the subtle tension in his muscles, little cues of increased vigilance-- that Ivar's on his radar. He's listening, for movement or words, and when the boy speaks...

OKAY. WOW. He wasn't expecting some unsolicited feedback. Ren lowers his lightsaber and deactivates the blade as he turns to face Ivar fully, his annoyance obvious with the frown on his face. ]

If I gripped the hilt that high up, I'd deserve to lose my thumbs.

[ OBVIOUSLY. ]

[Ivar knows that annoyed look quite well. He is a gadfly, same as his father, and his mission in life is to drive people one step closer to the edge of the abyss. The more tightly wound up they are, the more Ivar just continues to poke and prod at them, and he has a far-too-innocent smile on his face.]

Still could. That's like creating a dagger where the hilt is made out of two more daggers. Impractical.

[Ivar may not know exactly what a lightsaber is, but he knows his weapons, and that one looks unwieldy.]

[ And Ivar's in luck: Kylo's just about the easiest person to provoke a reaction out of, constantly raw and often poor at masking his emotions... especially without the aid of a literal mask. He may not lose his temper immediately, but once he reaches the end of his fuse, it can be satisfyingly explosive. ]

Only if you assume its only purpose is offensive. That's your shortcoming, not mine.

[ There's a practical reason for the crossguard blades, after all. Plus, they've served him well in the past. JUST ASK FINN. ]

[Ivar folds his arm, now looking at Kylo with a critical glance. There's something in his gaze that seems to say he's looking for something and finding it lacking in the man.]

The only thing I'm assuming right now is what kind of a fool would wield such a weapon.

[He's just going to continue to poke and prod until that temper gets unleashed.]

[ His hand squeezes around the lightsaber's hilt, because he'd certainly like to ignite it and strike the boy down (if for no other reason than to wipe his smugness off the map), though he keeps his temper in check. ]

The only fool here is the one who pretends to be an expert on a weapon he's never seen before. [ He moves a bit closer, though he doesn't close the distance between them. ] Do you do that often? Speak on things you know nothing about?

[It's a small wonder Ivar doesn't laugh right in Kylo's face. Really? As if he can be baited by trying to insult his intelligence, something Ivar knows for a fact he has in abundance.]

Almost never. I tend to be the smartest person in any situation, present one included.

[Which should say what he thinks of Kylo Ren right now. He echoes Kylo's question with one of his own.]

Do you often try and match wits with someone who is clearly far superior to you?

[ Ren blinks slowly, clearly unimpressed by Ivar's case of telling instead of showing. So far, all he's seen is a boy who's leapt to incorrect conclusions about his weapon, based on a faulty assumption, and is perfectly smug in his own ignorance. It's not exactly the stuff of great cleverness.

It does, however, do the trick of draining his anger. ]

Ah.

[ He's just going to go back to his training, if this exchange isn't going to yield anything more than a child's attempt at baiting. ]

I'll take that as a no.

[Tsk, another meathead whose all brawn and no brains. Ivar's spent a lifetime surrounded by them in the Viking era, his brothers included. He watches Kylo fight for about another minute and there's something familiar about the way he swings a sword.]

How long have you been a knight?

[It's a shot in the dark, but Ivar's basing his guess off of the way Kylo holds his sword. He holds it close to the ground when he starts and brings it up for powerful swings, the same way that English knights back home fight with their heavy broadswords.]

[ With the way that Ren tends to conduct himself, that's not an unreasonable assumption on Ivar's part. He does tend to come across as all brawn and no brains-- or, at least, no impulse control. Right now, though, he's feeling stable enough that he's not as volatile as usual, so he doesn't rise to the latest dig.

(Training, at least, is good for centering his mind as well as honing his physical strength.)

The boy's question, however, does draw Ren's attention back to him. He pauses in his movements, looking over at him again with some interest. Knights, he's found, tend to be an outdated concept to most he's encountered in the quarantine. So it's a pleasant surprise that this assumption from Ivar, at least, is correct. ]

Five, six years.

[ Though he's trained with the lightsaber for quite a bit longer than that. ]

I thought so. You swing your sword like one.

[Ivar thinks back on the battles he's been in. Knights were a great, skillful force on their own merit, but they're slowed down by their armor, which makes it easier for Vikings, who go lightly armored if at all, to take them down. Ivar has killed his fair share of them during his time.

He looks cocky, giving Kylo a challenging look as he continues on.]

Not that I've ever found a knight I couldn't stick a knife into.

[Don't underestimate him just because he's in a wheelchair. He'll give anyone a run for their money when he fights them, Force-sensitive or not.]

[As part of the surveyors unit of the Perimeter Guard, Val finds herself outside the wall more often than not; her job, strictly speaking, is to bring back corrected maps of the abandoned city and its surrounding area, but most of the time she just sort of does her own thing while she's out.

She's got her sword on her, as always, slung across her back, and when she hears movement somewhere nearby, the sound of something being struck over and over again, she draws her weapon, toting that huge sword as if it were made of cardboard instead of Adgardian steel. Val moves toward the sound, expecting to round a corner any moment and find someone scavenging where they shouldn't be, but...

Oh. It's that guy. Shit, what's his name?]

Hey. [She'll call out to him.] What'd that tree ever do to you?

[She doesn't actually care, of course. A tree's a tree. But she's curious. And also this is sort of her job.]

[ Look.

He didn't come out here with any intention of taking his anger out on a helpless tree. Really! He didn't! But he's dealing with some things lately. His mom's here. He's kissed a girl. Said girl is also Resistance scum, and he's attempted to kill all of her friends. Everything's complicated, and sometimes when you go out intending to clear your head with some solo adventuring, you find yourself taking all of your pent up Feelings out on a helpless tree.

At least he has the good sense to look at least a little chagrined when Val comes upon him in his attempted arboricide. He stops, mid-hack, and... extinguishes his lightsaber. Nothing to see here. ]

It was in my way.

[ Wow, that was bad. ]

[Hey, buddy. That all sounds really rough. Val gets it. She's had a weird couple of months. It's all a shake-up. And sometimes you just need to take out all your shit on an inanimate object.

Her sword lowers, and then back into its sheath on her back.]

Right. 'Course.

[With that weapon of his turned off, she feels safe enough to come closer.]

Looks like you taught it a lesson.

[RIP that tree.]

[ Well, she clearly doesn't believe him-- which makes sense; he wouldn't believe himself, either-- but at least she doesn't press the issue. For that, Ren feels some gratitude. And besides, she's a warrior who's been around for a thousand years or so; she must be difficult to faze. ]

It will think twice before standing in anyone's way again. [ Ha ha. Ha. Awkward attempt at humor...

Anyway. With both of their weapons lowered and sheathed-- his own lightsaber back in its rightful position on its belt-- Ren takes a step back from the scene of the crime and directs his attention to Val more completely. ]

That's an impressive weapon. [ Swords >>>> projectiles. ]

[She pauses, raises her eyebrows incredulously, and then snorts.]

Was that a joke?

[From her brief conversation with this guy...he really doesn't seem the type. But she'll take it. And she'll take the compliment, too. She grins, reaches up and pats the pommel of her sword.]

Thanks. It's the last of its kind anywhere, so...I keep it close. It's not a laser sword though.

[ There's the tiniest hint of a smirk at the corner of his lips. ]

It's been known to happen sometimes. [ Kylo Ren's famous for his sense of humor! Well, not famous. And his sense of humor's generally pretty sarcastic. Much as he tries to deny it: he is his parents' child. ]

Lightsaber. [ Though 'laser sword' is... honestly an accurate description, so he doesn't sound put off by it. ] One of the last. You could say it's a dying art, where I'm from.

Good to know.

[She nods thoughtfully, and she's sort of struck by that 'dying art' bit.]

I know how that goes. My sword's not...the only thing that's last of its kind.

[u feel me]

[ That gives him pause. Ren, after all, is in a bit of an unusual position here. Yes, he's one of the few Force users left-- one of a handful who even know how to make a lightsaber-- but he's also... soooort of responsible for toppling his uncle's Jedi temple and killing half of the students.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't know a thing or two about loneliness! ]

Your people are gone?

Sort of. It's...

[She kicks at a bit of rubble, swinging her shoulders around, debating how best to put this.]

I was part of this group of warriors. Legends in our own time. And basically...some shit went down, and Thor's bitch older sister slaughtered the whole legion.

[Except her. Haha,]

[Eleven isn't a huge fan of this whole communal housing thing. There's too many people, and she can't trust any of them. So most of the time if she bothers showing up she hides under her bed or a nice table somewhere. That's exactly what she's doing right now, hiding under a table in the public kitchen. She doesn't crawl out when he enters and starts to make use of things, but eventually the small of food cooking lures her enough that she quietly crawls out and makes her way to peek up at what he's doing over the counter.

Something that he's cooking with looks good, and since she's ravenously hungry she reaches out with her hand and uses her power to quickly lift and pull the item toward her in the air. ]

[ Join the club, Eleven. Ren is here out of necessity. Granted, communal living situations aren't new to him. But this is the first time he's had to live under the same roof as his enemies, so that alone tends to have him somewhat on edge about living here.

Anyway, tonight he's making... probably the same thing he makes every night: a totally utilitarian meal to fuel his body. Lots of lean meat, that's the star of his dinner. And though it's difficult to sneak up on him, given the Force, there are so many people in the housing complex that he's not always paying them much mind.

So Eleven goes unnoticed... until A PIECE OF POULTRY MOVES OF ITS OWN VOLITION, as if somebody were harnessing the Force. That's when he whips around to face her, brows furrowed in confusion, half-expecting to see Rey.

Instead, there's a child, holding her hand out for it. He stares for a moment, studying her. And then he gestures with one hand to pull a plate off the counter and push it to her.

If you're going to eat his food, kid, you can at least use a plate.

(Or he's just showing her that LOOK, we're the same maybe.) ]

[Her eyes are wide as she observes him doing the same thing she can do. Any interest in food is forgotten, as her hands extends to make a gesture that pushes the plate back at him with enough force that he'll have to really push back against it. Was he taken from his mother and hidden away by a bad man too? Twisted and changed and marked with a tattoo?

She gives a nod of her head when she thinks there's a lapse in his caring about showing her they're the same, and the plate goes sailing over toward the sink. Thankfully it doesn't break.]

Eleven.

[She introduces herself, stepping in toward him with excitement so she can tap at the 011 tattoo on her arm. Does he have a mark like her, a number? ]

[ As if by reflex, he pushes back against the plate, keeping it suspended in the air between them. Ren tilts his head, curious about the girl's powers-- how far they extend, where they come from-- and relents enough for her to give it one final push to the sink. He glances back at it, then down to the girl again. Eleven?

Ren shakes his head and pulls up his own sleeves, just enough to show that there's no corresponding tattoo. ]

Kylo Ren. [ Eyeing her tattoo, he adds: ] Who gave you that?

[ Chyler is putting in some extra cqc time at one of the Perimeter Guard's more popular places, one where people tend to play a little rougher than they do on the mats and in the training yards. She wants to improve. She doesn't want to go home without bruises.

She loses as many matches as she wins, usually, but she's been on a roll tonight. A string of sloppy opponents, overconfident when faced with a teenager girl, 5'3'' and slender. The second one convinced that the first fight had been a fluke. The third one determined to prove the preceding challengers weak.

Now, though. Now she's at a serious disadvantage. Her skills have been pretty well exposed, and the guy on the roster next is...

Well. He's big.

She'll have to fight smart, fast, and at a distance, if she wants to stand a chance. ]

[ Damn right he's big, a solid foot taller than her and who knows how many pounds more. And though his usual get-up, all covered up in black from his neck down, tends to make him appear rather lanky, the tank top he's wearing now reveals his true broad musculature.

It certainly appears as if he's got an unfair advantage, to anyone who hasn't seen the girl wipe the floor with other opponents drunk on their own overconfidence. But contrary to what some may think about Ren (and his dubious levels of control and maturity), he's not foolish enough to enter into the fight underestimating her for her age and size. He's at least learned that much from losing in a duel against a certain scavenger girl, not to mention from simple observation of her previous matches.

She's quick, and she fights with intelligence, careful with when she strikes and how. It serves her well at first, as she gets some solid hits in. Impressive. But she fights like somebody with little real-world experience in close quarters combat, and as a Knight of Ren, Kylo has more years of martial training under his belt. Not to mention, he has her beat in size and reach, and sheer vicious aggression.

He doesn't fight like a soldier; he fights like an attack dog.

The match is over as soon as he gets a hold on her, though she's tenacious enough not to tap out immediately. Not bad for somebody so young. ]

Edited 2018-01-25 17:49 (UTC)

[ Chyler has a twisted appreciation for the fact that when this man gets her in a headlock, he makes it hurt. No consideration for her age. That's what she needs--people who are better than her, vastly better than her, who won't show mercy.

She needs to be stronger than she is. She's seeing spots before she finally taps his arm to let her go.

It takes her a few seconds to get her breath back. Chyler nods to him, still panting. ]

Good match.

[ There's no sir, not here. ]

[ With the match over, Ren offers a hand to help her up-- only if it's needed-- and moves back off the mat to towel some of the sweat off and take a swig of water. He doesn't expect her to say anything to him, so when she does, he stops mid-drink, eyeing her, and nods, somewhat nonplussed. ]

How long have you been training?

[ Not 'today, in this session,' obviously. Just. In general. Somebody so young, with military training, calls to mind the Stormtrooper program. ]

[ It's nice of him to help her up. She's pretty sure her previous opponents wouldn't have done the same. She retrieves her own water bottle, biting the top as she takes a drink. It's a bad habit. She tosses her towel over her shoulder as she turns around. ]

I've been at Corbulo Academy of Military Science for a year, but my parents taught me some cqc and self-defense.

[ She squeezes the little nozzle on top of her bottle with her back teeth, giving him a considering look. ]

You?

Closer to ten years.

[ Though he hasn't been a knight for that long, it's at least a good estimate when he factors in how long he's been using a lightsaber. ]

You clearly took to your training well. [ Though he supposes it helps, others' perception of her. Being underestimated can be an incredible advantage, when utilized correctly. That, too, she seems adept at. ]

Thank you. [ She knew the odds of beating him were unlikely. Now she knows the odds of beating him were astronomically against her. It's a salve for her pride. No one likes losing. ]

Do you come here much?

( maybe kylo doesn't have to worry about the authorities, but there are others wandering around this particular area of forestry who don't take kindly to him destroying shit just for fun. he'll hear billy before he sees him, the quiet murmur of i want to make a force field around him moments before wispy threads of magic move to do just that. nothing that would hurt him, but certainly enough to get kylo to stop attacking shit. and he's really not concentrating hard enough to prevent kylo from breaking it if he really wanted to. it's also protecting him from the shit that's trying to hit him though, so.

he's got the red hood of his cape shoved low over eyes, but the irritated purse of his mouth is still evident enough. ) What'd the forest ever do to you?

( like maybe not go past the fence where it's not his territory? you can't just overrule everything, dude? )

Edited 2018-01-23 01:06 (UTC)

[ He didn't come out into the forest to destroy anything. He went out to explore, to get the lay of the land, to be free of the confines of the city, and to clear his head. That there are some hostile creatures beyond the inner fence isn't something he's particularly concerned with, given his abilities and his training.

The sudden appearance of some sort of mystical shield is enough to stop him from defending himself, at least once he realizes the creature can't seem to penetrate it. He even pokes at the shield, experimentally, with the tip of his lightsaber's blade. Interesting. Still, he can reach through it with the Force, and so he does, just to hurl the creature against a nearby tree with a sickening crack.

That takes care of that. He whirls to face the younger man, scowling, his lightsaber still humming and crackling with energy. ]

I wasn't aware the forest had a keeper. [ That's sarcasm. He's not inclined to give a real answer. ]

It doesn't. ( billy's no protector of the forest, but needless violence is still enough to tick him off. there's no reason to seriously harm anything out here, most of it can be avoided with care. and if not avoided--well. if this guy has the capability of throwing things like that, he certainly doesn't need to run them through with that--lightsaber? or even throw them that hard, he imagines.

but his attention leaves the man after the creature rams into the tree, turning on his heels instead to go and check on it. the thing that definitely didn't need some asshole walking into it's life, even if it may have started it.

fingers run over the closest thing to a neck he can find, searching for a pulse. billy murmurs soft under his breath as fingers move over it, that same blue pulse of magic encircling fingertips and as soon as the creature start stirring, raising it's head, it--disappears. that's one problem solved.

he doesn't bother keeping an eye out for the guy behind him during; what's he gonna do, use the force to shove billy into walls? he only needs an instant to move himself out of the way. )

Are you done bothering the wildlife?

[ The powers on display would be enough to pique his curiosity under normal circumstances, but Ren's not particularly interested in engaging with a stranger determined to see the worst in him, as if he went stomping into the forest to pick fights against defenseless animals. ]

I'm done with you. [ Dismissive, aside from the emphasis on you. He'll take his leave and continue with his business, unless there's more to the conversation than accusations. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

fun times with darth emo

I

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

ii.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

iii.

no subject

no subject

no subject

i. ROUND ONE FIGHT

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

ii.

no subject

no subject

no subject