(no subject)

[bythehand]

who: finn and OPEN
what: tdm prompts (dreamshare, big robits)! canon updates! and a general february catchall.
when: backdated late january through all of february. various.
where: idk, dreams. big robits. generally around.
warnings: violence towards Big Beetles, nightmare content (which includes death, more violence, and maybe vague body horror idk). spoilers for the last jedi. will add as things crop up.

[ splitting starters off into the comments below to save on wall-of-text properties! can be reached by PM or at comatoseroses for plotting! ]

Comments

[pacific rim reference]

[bythehand]

[ Ah, yes. Giant beetles and giant robots built to fight them. At this point in his life, really, all Finn can think is something along the lines of "this might as well be happening right now". There's not really... there's not really much else he can think.

The hunt to fill any parts of his days not already regimented out to Perimeter Guard duties and 'general basic necessities' has been an ongoing struggle. If it weren't crazy and really dangerous for a lot of innocent civilians and maybe within the top five most ridiculous things he's ever been in a position to have to deal with... Finn would be kind of grateful for the extra something to focus on.

Well. Part of him is kind of grateful regardless. Not enough to overpower the very basic reality of how ridiculous and/or dangerous it is, but enough of him.

Finn does his share of rounds on the inside of a big beetle-fighting robot, signed in solely for weapons duty. He's not exactly much of a pilot. Weapons systems he can pick up fast. He doesn't think he wants to try his luck on how fast and how well he can pick up driving the big mech thing.

PRETTY MUCH ALL FELLOW OPERATORS WELCOME?

Finn's pretty big on being a team player. He'll offer a greeting to whoever his current teammate is right out of the gate. Presumably something cool like "hey" or "glad you could make it." And, if he hasn't met them already, he'll be sure to introduce himself too.

Wow he hopes this doesn't go too pear-shaped. Time to start feeling out this setup.

If he's not in the giant robot preparing to shoot things as needed, Finn can also be found doing his requisite duty as part of the ground forces! Which, realistically, is a lot more like what he was trained for than mech operating.

The bugs are a surprise. The method of trying to steer them away is less so. ]

[kierkegaard]

[ one (1) teenage girl in braids enters the thunder dome, wearing grungy jeans and a blue tee shirt with a bear on it, knife slung around her hip on a gold cord like that is just how u do. she does not, for a second, look like she should be here but, you know, piper tends to get her way without trying. ]

Hey. Looks like I'm your partner, partner...

[ she flashes him a winning smile, even though those words did just spill from her mouth. not her finest moment, sure, but not her worst. ]

[bythehand]

[ THUNDER DOME, THUNDER DOME.

Finn's not always a keen and super objective opinion when it comes to Youths In Battle. That's just sort of one of those things that happens, right. Sometimes kids and teens know what they're about, through circumstances outside of their control. He did. Rey probably did. Chyler does.

She doesn't have the same sort of stiff bearing. He wonders. It's hard to judge a book by a two-second glance at the cover, though.

The greeting gets more of an eyebrow raise than anything, for the time being. ]

Do a lot of piloting, partner?

[ Finn Can't Drive. Will he ever one day learn???? ]

good dreams.

[bythehand]

i.

[ Welcome to the warm, admittedly simply furnished interior of... what might be a cabin or a cottage or just a very very small house, kind of. It's a dream, man. Everything's on the breeze.

Maybe it sounds like it's raining outside. Maybe you pass the window or an open door and catch sight of an empty beach. Or a bright blue sky and green hills, or a strange reflective night that by all rights it probably wouldn't be practical to build a house at the center of.

The scenery changes like that, sometimes, if someone's bothering to look. The house doesn't. It's almost like it's trying places on.

What a character will definitely see is Finn. He's hard to miss. He's the one sitting on the floor, back against the sofa, surrounded by the scattered pieces of what seems to be a set of stools. Like, he's just here, squinting down at printed instructions and trying to build some ikea furniture basically?

He's about as relaxed as he ever can be, which doesn't always say much, but there's a greater sense of-- being at ease. Comfortable in his surroundings. He feels it. It sort of feels like home. He speaks without looking up. ]

Didn't hear you get in.

[ tbh we can play around with this however anyone wants. just chilling and talking about stuff? visiting in a weird dream au life? going out for an Adventure Hike? it's all good we can make things happen. ]


ii.

[ Picture a good ship. The kind made for water, not for the stars. Nothing too big, nothing too ornate and fancy-- just smooth, clean lines and smooth, clean sails, and the vast expanse of the ocean surrounding it on all sides. A really good ship.

The water is a little on the choppy side, and the waves are pretty sizable, but it seems to have just passed through a rough patch decently enough, no damage done, crests on a swell of water that looks more than a bit intimidating.

Guess which asshole is the one halfway up the mast, whooping really really loudly? It's Finn. Sorry, he doesn't make the rules, that was great? He loved that. Sign him up for this shit in full. Quickly following his wordless shout of exhilaration is an equally exhilarated shout, while he considers climbing back down: ]

I have no idea how the hell this thing is still floating!

[ HELL YEAH?????? he has no idea how to sail at all. ]

ii

[specifications]

[ Arthur has no fucking clue what is going on aside from the fact he's actually... dreaming? That is as unexpected as being on a damn boat on the ocean. He's busy looking out at the ocean, having just been plopped down into this when he jumps at hearing Finn's voice from above. He has to do a double-take but ends up laughing. Not just at the words but at the absurdity of it all.

Ocean water sprays up on the deck and for a moment it feels real. Briefly. He knows he's wet, knows the wind is picking up. He moves over to the wheel, still barefoot, in his pajamas, shouting up, ]

As long as she doesn't take on more water, she'll float!

[ He says as another swell of water is rising in front of them. ]

this is Pure

[bythehand]

[ It's probably good for someone to be near the wheel. This is not something Finn's cared about too especially. He just knew he wanted to be up. He wanted the wind, and the view, and the sky reflecting onto the water. The feeling that he can go anywhere he wants, or anywhere that he winds up at all, wandering without direction. That it's all fine.

Freedom without obligation, in the purest sense.

He doesn't question that someone's on deck in their pajamas. It sort of incorporates itself, part of how things are.

Finn eyes the water, already starting to climb his way back down. He doesn't find himself feeling especially concerned or afraid for it. ]

You know, I don't normally believe in jinxes! [ His smile takes on a bit of a sardonic edge. ] But you might wanna find something to hold onto!

i

[volitaunt]

[ Poe sprawls out on the couch behind Finn, looking out the nearest window at the paradise of stars beyond it.

He feels strangely calm. Maybe it's this place. Maybe it's the sense that they're safe here, that everyone else is safe, too. (In the distance outside, the Raddus passes slowly, followed by a transports like tiny ducklings.)

Maybe it's the comfortably domestic sight of Finn trying to read directions and put together what looks like a piece of furniture that takes entirely too much effort.

Poe rolls over and picks up one of the pieces, turning it over in his hands. ]

What's this even supposed to be?

[bythehand]

[ Safety is hard to come by. Let alone a sense of it that comes without the feeling that it won't be long before it's gone again.

More to the point, Finn looks over his shoulder at Poe with an eyebrow arched, like "okay excuse you, what if I had that specifically laid out for something before you grabbed it," which can't hold up under the reality that is... reality. He actually forgot it was there. His expression slides right into benign resignation. ]

If I knew, I'd have it set up already. It might be part of a drawer. As far as I can figure, at least. [ He holds his instructions up for a second, squints at them. ] All pictures, no labels. Wouldn't hurt them to try written instructions.

[ Trying to put this together is so dumb, but he's having a nice time with it still. It's the biggest problem he has right now. Something about that is nice.

Anyway, I can't believe Rey and Rose are the only two people in the entire Star Wars universe who will be able to assemble the Resistance's new furniture when they finally can afford it. ]

nightmare. (cw for ur death and Horrors as mentioned)

[bythehand]

[ The small conference room smells like blaster discharge and singed fabric. It smells like death, packed up to the edges. It isn't hard to source out why, for someone standing in it.

All four negotiators are lying where they fell past the long table, faces frozen in fear. The walls are plain and smooth and dark. There is no other furniture. There's a door on the wall opposite the table, but the mechanism to open it from inside seems to be missing.

Finn is kneeling by the Abednedo's body towards the back, trying to wipe sand off of its face. The sand doesn't go away, as surely as it shouldn't logically be there in the first place. It trickles from the Abednedo's mouth, from its eyes, pools and piles on the floor on either side. He can feel the grit of it beneath his knees, lacking his armor and sporting only his plain black underclothes as a barrier.

Sometimes his fingers fumble over the features, sometimes he looks down and he thinks he sees Slip half-buried instead. He's always wrong.

No matter how hard he tries, it doesn't stop trickling back. He wonders if there's something wrong with him.

He can't make himself stop trying. ]

The door's gonna open, [ Finn says, to himself or to the body or to anything that might listen. The reassurance of knowing, with all the surety a dream can provide, that it will.

He's not sure what happens when it does.

(I'm just going to use this as a nightmare home base of sorts. What it branches out to will depend on plotting or rng or whatever, it's all chill.) ]

sticks m legy out

[spellslots]

[Taako doesn't think I don't this place or I don't know these corpses because it's a dream and that's just how they work sometimes. His thoughts are focused on Finn (who he definitely knows) and the door, the latter as a source of concern.]

We gotta go, my dude. Let's get outta here.

[He's worried enough about whatever's on the other side of the door that he's reaching down for Finn's arm, planning to haul him up and away from the corpse.]

darkweb give me the taako content

[bythehand]

[ He feels like Taako shouldn't be here, probably. It's almost like having vertigo when Finn turns his head to look at him-- like he's been here a hundred times and this is the first time something's changed about it.

But none of them should be here. Like, logically. These people shouldn't be dead and Finn shouldn't be here. This is just how it is. Maybe Taako is part of how things are, now.

Finn tries to pull in a decidedly not-away direction, stuck between scared and irritated and not sure where he plans to land. ]

What- there's nowhere to go. We can't.

[childofaxios]

If it doesn't, I'll blast it open.

[ Chyler doesn't know how she got here. She doesn't know how Finn got here, where these bodies came from, but she knows she'll guard him against whatever comes their way. She has a P-90 in her hands, and for a second she thinks she's wearing tactical gear but no, it's armor. White armor. It's always been white armor. ] Finn. Get up. It's dead.

[ Dead, not human. Those two things together are only for the good. For a second there's a shadow in the far corner of the room, a broad-shouldered, armored something, seven feet tall, but then it's gone and Chyler can't help thinking that's important somehow, that the thing disappearing just makes it more dangerous, not less. She raises her weapon. ]

Finn. You can't help the dead.

[bythehand]

[ It's like staring at the pieces to different puzzles. Finn tries, but he can't make it all fit. He thinks Chyler shouldn't be here, like this, but she is. He thinks he should be-- something. Upset. Afraid. Because it's wrong, it looks wrong and feels wrong, it smells wrong.

He can only manage to feel half-removed, off-balance. Clinical autopilot when nothing is working.

You can't help the dead.

There's sand beneath his fingernails.

This one was supposed to be his.

I want it to stop. The memory of the words comes unbidden, with all the firmness of cold command. Sharp as the day Phasma said them. I want it to stop, he thinks in response, anything but cold, anything but commanding. I wanted it to stop.

He doesn't deserve it. ]

It's not about helping them.

[ Then what? Another something, bleeding through the cracks. He can't help the dead. ]

If I stop, they get buried. They just-- they just stay, they get left there, everything keeps going.

[ He wants it to stop.

He doesn't deserve it. He doesn't deserve to stop seeing their faces. He doesn't deserve to walk out of here.

(He can't leave Chyler alone to deal with whatever happens outside of this room. What she deserves outweighs what he deserves.)

His hand stills. ]

I hate sand.

closed: rey

[bythehand]

[ When he and Poe signed for their canisters, Finn had made sure to fire a message off to Rey about it, just for the sake of keeping things above-board, more or less. That it was something important, that it was supposed to mean new memories of things from home. That they were going to open them soon.

He'd learned that Rey got one, too.

It takes a ways into the day he opens his for him to feel like he's mostly caught up with himself. Things to do and people to talk to, issues to talk about, suddenly seemed to pile up once he and Poe bit the bullet. It's been sort of-- disorienting. Even though really not too much time got covered by what was in the canister. A day, maybe two?

So much happened.

Coming back to himself and remembering everything that's been happening here, too, that made for a lot of suddenly difficult to parse feelings and impulses. He takes some of the time that doesn't sort of fill itself out by rote trying to get himself sorted. Figure out what to process, what to put off processing. There's more to put off processing than he thought.

He realizes he never even got the chance to talk to Rey after everything. After she brought the Falcon back at exactly the right time, after running to her on Crait and the bustle of getting everyone out to safety, and making sure Rose was being looked out for (without Rose, he thinks, he wouldn't have seen Rey again at all).

There are so many things he didn't get a chance to tell her. Finn sends Rey another message when he's finally settled as best he can, simple: ]

Did you open yours?

[ The triumph of remembering getting her back got tempered fast when it ran up against recent events in the Quarantine.

Things being complicated haven't meant that he hasn't missed her. That he doesn't still miss her. It almost feels all the sharper, now. ]

[talentedscavenger]

[Rey stares at the message over and over again. She received a message from Finn that he received a canister--that he and Poe received canisters, the same type as hers. They would learn things about their home world. Be one step closer to going back to their world. It felt so strange, as though she had been living two lives, trying to reconcile what she experienced in Quarantine and what happened when they were all together...

The First Order. Snoke, now dead, but chances were he didn't know that. But what she remembered was the look on Finn's face as he placed a blanket over a young woman. Someone important, someone he cared for a lot. It was the same look Rey had on her face when she left Finn on D'Qar. Feelings of closeness...feelings that could be taken as more than friendship. If Finn wanted to be with her, that was fine..but in a way, it felt like he moved on and she had been left behind.

No...no, she had made several choices that strained several friendships, broke her heart, and fooled herself into thinking Ben could come back into the Light.

She's had days to think over the events. Days to figure out how she wanted to reach out to Poe and Finn...and Leia too. She wasn't sure what to say aside from apologizing. But Finn...he was the first to reach out. Finally after an hour, she replies to his message.]

I did. Did you?

And I should have sent this earlier, but I didn't know how to say it.

I'm sorry, Finn.

closed: poe dameron, paige tico

[bythehand]

[ Poe is the first one it occurs to. Finn's gotten to know Rose, oddly pretty well for spending all of a day(ish) with her, sure, but he's only properly met and talked to Paige once or twice, and families aren't necessarily his forte. His mind tries to juggle a good half-dozen things at once, all coming up in his thoughts to demand their own level of attention and priority. He would have remembered in time, but not as fast.

Poe is the first one it occurs to, and Finn catches on with enthusiasm to spare.

That Paige is here, and Rose is her sister, and she can hear that she's okay. That the Resistance isn't done for, maybe, if she wants to know that too.

They make sure she's around, send a quick message that probably says something like "news from home, can we talk," and show up at her door together-- after a little bit of scheduling around things they feel a very urgent need to attend to. They both want to be there. They might as well go ahead and make sure that they both are. At this point, it's hardly any trouble to approach something as a unit.

Finn reaches out and knocks. ]

:D

[starfortress]

[ Meanwhile, family is everything to Paige. Most of all, her sister. And after almost a month of being there, of knowing that she will see her sister again (unless she shows up here), Paige is struggling to remain completely positive. She does her job, she goes through the motions, she explores the city on her downtime.

She smiles even when she feels like crying.

The message is more ominous than they intend. But she waits, impatiently, something she keeps to herself by simply pacing the length of her bunk. And by the time they show up, it's a wonder she hasn't worn a line in the floor. She has No Chill when she pulls the door open, smiling at him but feeling nerves bubbling up inside of her.]

Hello to you both.

QUANTUM TENTACLES | closed starters

[bythehand]

[ the finn channel spring preview.

Finn, sadly, does not generally make for a soothing presence on the other end of any connection, for however long it lasts.

There are ups and downs in overall mood, of course, like with anybody. Happiness here, warmth there, the occasional frustration or sadness-- but on the whole, a connection tuning someone into Finn's general state of emotional being is a connection to a string pulled taut, thrumming with tension. Always a little wary. A little anxious. Never fully relaxing.

His emotions across all fronts come strong and sharp. Sometimes as severe spikes of unpleasant emotions that get pushed aside almost immediately. Not gone, never completely gone, but carefully navigated around, ignored.

Finn spends... a lot of time more or less feeling like he's ready to vibrate out of his skin for no particular reason, basically. We don't settle, we gear up consistently for second shoes to drop even though we don't know what they are or what terrible thing they're gonna be. Like men. There is no chill here. There is never real chill. Except maybe when he's asleep.

Catching snippets of his day through a connection presents a bit of a visual counterpoint to the emotional undercurrents, because he's got a lot of quiet and steady routines built into the framework. Getting dressed, eating a meal, attending to duties at work, getting in some exercise. Maybe feeding Jyn and Cassian's cat while they're out of the city, or idly picking his way through some kind of puzzle book, or folding laundry. Shopping for a house plant. Plenty of little stuff like that.

For those stuck on the receiving end of his feelings and trying to investigate, there are undoubtedly plenty of opportunities to catch on to his identity as flashes of things as seen through his eyes turn up. Or through any memories that may crop up, but those tend to come on a pretty case-by-case basis. ]

TAAKO

[bythehand]

[ It doesn't take long at all to figure out who's on the other end of this connection. Whatever it is, whatever's causing it. The emotions that don't quite sit right, the flashes of daily life.

Finn's mostly content to try to let it lie without prodding too much. It's something he plans on telling Taako about, as soon as he can-- things sort of roll in one after the other in his own schedule, though, keep him busy, and those things take a little longer than usual to sort out with his distraction.

(Why does Taako change how he looks, he wonders, adds to the list of questions of why Taako does almost anything.)

He gets back to his apartment and it's relatively late, and he doesn't know all that much about elves, but his broad assumption is that most things sleep, so he thinks alright, tomorrow, first thing in the morning. And he knows he'll probably be awake before sunrise, so it's not as far off as it could be.

The thing is, Finn almost doesn't realize that the mood shift isn't coming from him at first. He can't sleep. It's pretty late. That's when things usually roll in, or when he dozes into a nightmare, same as Poe does sometimes. It's when things start to drift up to the surface before a person can stop them.

And then he sees.

And then he knows. And then he's rolling to his feet and getting his boots on, because he's got a problem with being impulsive and a standing habit of not being able to let it lie when there's something (more or less) right in front of him that he might be able to help.

Message for you, buddo: ]

I realize this is probably a weird time to say I'm outside. But if it helps, it's not about trying to kill you.

REY

[bythehand]

[ He thinks he's starting to get the hang of this latest unfortunate turn in Quarantine events. Not in the hang of controlling it, strictly, but of recognizing when it happens, sort of... tuning into it. Separating out what's his and what isn't, at least.

Finn feels something that isn't his, and he figures either he'll get some of those same flashes and figure out who it is, or he won't, and he'll just have to wonder about. They're sad. They're alone. He doesn't know who they are, though. How he can help what he doesn't have information on. All he can do is all he can do. He just tries to push it back and work the way he normally does.

Then he starts to feel whoever is on the other end-- almost responding. Probably not on purpose. Almost like an automatic reaction. Getting a little more tense, a little more volatile as time marches on. He feels frustrated about something for a few moments, and then has the singular sensation of that frustration rippling out and echoing back, for lack of a better description. Feels guilt when he realizes what's happening, feels confused about feeling guilt, and it all sort of circles around like that, hard to untangle.

Eventually, somewhere, wherever she is, Rey will get a sudden look at what her mystery connection is doing: namely, taking care of Cassian and Jyn's newest housemate. There isn't terribly much going on in the moment. She's been fed already, he's just making sure she has a little bit of company before he has to go again. He reaches out a (familiar) hand to run down her back, which she responds to by betraying him in the spur of the moment like cats do, rolling over to get one paw's worth of claws stuck to his jacket sleeve and biting his thumb.

He doesn't shake her off. But he does suck in a breath through his teeth loudly enough to startle her into pulling back. At which point he says, with all due grave offense: "what the hell was that for?"

Ah.... dignified. There's actually a little touch of fondness floating in there. This is a hundred percent the animal he would expect from Jyn and Cassian.

Anyway surprise guess who's been inadvertently putting you on edge all day, Rey. It's ya boi. ]

POE

[bythehand]

[ Well, the first mood of the day once Finn gets up is a combination of frustration and resignation as potent as it is humanly possible to feel. Which is generally the mood on waking up and realizing you're feeling someone else's business, again, and have come to view it as a huge inconvenience.

Nature of the Quarantine, he guesses. If we're all on honest ground here, it doesn't add or take away too much from Finn's usual operating standards. What's a drop in the emotional bucket, realistically speaking? For the time being, he just does what he can to shake it off, put it aside to deal with later, if at all. There's no guarantee it'll let on about who he's been hitched up to this time around-- best thing for it is to go about his business like usual and hope it doesn't last too long. At the very least, they don't seem to be in some kind of "actively running from a murderer, help me" emotional state. So that's. Good.

So he goes about his business. He gets dressed. He puts on coffee so that they can have a cup ready to go before they sit down. He plugs in the egg roller thing, aka maybe their best joint purchase decision to date, because it has to preheat and he knows Poe likes getting to use it. It's worth that 8 minute cooking time commitment literally as long as the novelty hasn't worn off. Life's not always easy or kind, and that's a lesson that gets passed on to them in spades whenever the universe finds a chance.

Let someone have something nice first thing in the morning. At least then it was a nice morning.

Of course, Finn also immediately probably does something abhorrent like shotgunning an actual spoon of coffee grounds and chasing it with half a glass of water??? Sometimes you just have to embrace the level of disaster you're at, personally. He feels like it's gonna be one of those days, and he's gonna fortify against it. ]

LUCRETIA

[bythehand]

[ By this point, feeling something distinctly Not His has him placed at far from his first rodeo. It's almost been a good thing, in some abstract way. Made it easier to sort of step back from himself and untangle the threads of what he does think, or what he does feel, where he's normally prone to riding whatever fresh wave of emotion happens to take him.

Finn is a little smarter about his observances this time around. Still on edge, but getting the hang of navigating. Still functioning.

Actually, a lot of the time it sort of feels like that's exactly what the person he's connected to is doing. Just trying to function. Finn knows how to work with that. Same as he knows that he'll either see something that helps him figure out who it is, or he won't figure it out and eventually it'll pass. Patience, occasionally, he can do.

Mostly because once in a while patience can go well-rewarded. Like in this case. Maybe more due to luck than anything else. That's fine, though. He sees something in real-time: maybe catches her reflection in something she's passing by, or a flash of her hand while she's at work in a sketchpad. Finn hasn't met her often, but he tends to remember the people he finds memorable or especially kind. Lucretia's no exception.

So, as any courteous acquaintance who's finally gotten enough experience with this emotion-linking nonsense to not go kick down a door impulsively would do, he sends her a polite and well thought-out message. Because when it comes to situations where he could at any point get tuned into what she's doing, or catch a memory-- well, he wants to be as on the level as he can about anything neither of them got to choose. ]

This is Finn. Not sure if you remember me. But there's been something going on lately, and I'm pretty sure it linked me up with whatever you're feeling?

I really wish I had a better way to say that.

PAIGE TICO

[bythehand]

[ It's safe to say the person on the other end of this connection to Paige hasn't been the most settled or calm, as a general rule. Whether or not she clues into Finn's identity early on, it's very apparent that relaxation isn't on the menu.

He has his own levels of operation. They're mostly pretty strict. Not always necessarily pleasant, though they're known to be occasionally punctuated by bright, intense surges of affection, because he's a disaster and he loves his friends a lot.

Whatever the case is, at some point during this connection... Paige gets the front row seat to one of Finn's more recent memories from home.

He thinks about Rose a lot, anyway. And it's hardly something he'd mind sharing if he knew he was doing it. ]

CLOSED | kylo ren

[bythehand]

[ Finn plans on doing basically anything but acknowledging or interacting with Kylo Ren when he sees him. It's a course of action that takes no small amount of effort-- that takes, in fact, just about every ounce of self-control that he has in his possession.

He's done a lot of impulse-chasing since he defected. A lot of reflexive acting and poorly-thought-out decision making. He sees Kylo Ren in some little shop that he happened to need to swing into on his way back to the apartment, sees him standing there, hobbling along on crutches, and the desire to march up and. And he doesn't even know what yet, is the thing, just feels anger creep over him, sharp and cold.

But enough of his life was dedicated to restraint to tamp this impulse down. He's not looking to land in the hospital or hot water, or to have to tell Poe that he did something he's all but begged Poe not to do on a couple of notable occasions. There's enough chaos in their lives already, not even counting the flood of new people and whatever comes rolling in with them. Hologram glitches. Pretty solid for holograms.

Finn plans to keep his own tense, tight-jawed distance. Get in, get what he needs, get out. Maybe give Poe a heads up about seeing Ren around here.

The plan didn't factor in an actual building just fucking appearing right against the front of this particular building. Goodbye natural light. Hello, store lit purely by the overhead fluorescents. At least it isn't too crowded. There's the owner, who half-jogs towards the office in the back to... presumably make some phone calls about the literal building blocking everyone in. Maybe a straggling customer or two. And Finn. And Kylo Ren.

So uhhh that's, that's cool. Suddenly he has a headache coming on. ]

You've gotta be kidding me.

[ okay day
stuck in place with kylo ren
shitty day

You know what, maybe later he'll consider how lucky he is that they're not stuck in an elevator. ]

PRETEND I'M NOT PAINFULLY LATE

[killthepast]

[ Though he's largely recovered from his injuries-- at least, the worst of them-- Ren's movements are still stiff, and any trained soldier can see that he's not at 100%. Still, he's weakened, but not weak. Between the Force and his brutal, physical training as a Knight of Ren, Kylo's far from helpless.

Which is the only reason why he allows himself to be seen in public in this state. Still tall, proud, strong, and not anywhere close to defeated.

(Though it's a bit tough to look appropriately menacing while shopping for clothes. STILL, KYLO MAKES AN EFFORT TO.)

He can feel anger-- cold, sharp, and so unlike his own blazing, barely-contained wildfire-- emanating from a familiar presence, and though Kylo remains vigilant, he doesn't do the traitor the honor of acknowledging his presence. Much as he wants to strike, send him hurtling into the shop's displays, or rend his mind to shreds, Ren behaves for the time being.

Let the Rebel scum try to make the first move. It's only a matter of time. They always try, here, on this moon, and one day they'll learn first-hand just how much he's been holding back. Ren almost smiles at the thought, even as he compares two nearly-identical black sweaters. But when there's a sudden change in the lighting, and waves of surprise, panic, and aggravation rolling off of the few others in the shop, Kylo looks up from the clothes and sees...

They're blocked in by one of those blasted, solid holograms.

He tosses the sweaters aside and storms over to the entrance, reaching out with the Force to... attempt anything. But no, for now, there's precious little he can do but growl, hurl a mannequin at the door (with the Force, not his arms) in a fit of rage, and turn his anger to the most convenient target: FN-2187. ]

Trapped in a cage together. Isn't that convenient.