"I wasn't running," she says immediately, frowning up at him as she takes the glass. It's clearly not water but she's too busy being stubborn and offended to say anything about it. "I was in a hurry, but I wasn't running."
That feels immediately patronizing, but there isn't much Rey can do about it. It sits so wrong that he thinks that, but what are her options? Insist again that she wasn't afraid when that's not entirely true? She's still got her lightsaber in her hand instead of stowing it back in its holster, for crying out loud, she's not exactly giving off the impression of not being afraid.
Frustrated with herself, she takes a long drink of whiskey and immediately regrets it. She doesn't spit it back out, doesn't launch into a coughing fit, but she does make a face and suck in a breath after she's swallowed. What the fuck, Tommy, are you trying to kill her?
He doesn't mean it in a patronizing manner, but the fact is that he does this often-- apologizes and means it, but ends up sounding like he's making fun of the person in front of him.
He doesn't really have the time to react to the way she's practically buzzing with frustration, because then she's choking and looking incredibly angry at the top-shelf whiskey he just gave her.
"Whiskey," he says, slowly. Like there cannot possibly be a world out there that doesn't have whiskey.
She continues to frown at the glass, but the gulp she took is warming her from the inside out and chasing away the cold she hadn't realized she'd been feeling until now. She's never had a drink like this before, but it's impossible to ignore it's helping her let go of the last remaining bits of tension.
So she takes another drink, smaller this time, and still makes a face at the burn of it, but this time she's prepared. When she looks at him again, notices how closely he's watching her, she remembers for once in her life that manners are a thing.
"Thank you." The way she says it is a little rough, like she's not used to saying it. She's absolutely not because no one does nice things on Jakku, no one helps people, and she's been here around a month now and she's still not used to people being decent in any way.
He looks at her while she drinks- because he's lacking some manners himself, and because it's honestly just so odd to watch someone who's never had a drink before. Even his 11-year-old brother's sneaked sips of whiskey.
It's refreshing, even if it's strange. He watches her process the taste, the burn, the way the liquor must be warming her up.
"Ah, that's alright," he says, slowly. "Least I could do. It always helps me, a good drink."
She should tell him, she realizes then, exactly what happened and why she's in his room now, why he had to give her this drink at all. She just isn't sure how to explain it without making herself sound weak, like a victim. He didn't have to do any of this, he could have left her in the hallway and she would have been fine with that, but he didn't and deserves to know what's going on.
"There's a man here who goes by the name Kylo Ren," she starts, because that seems like a good place to begin. "He wears a mask."
She stops there, watching his face to wait for some sign of recognition. This will be better if she doesn't have to explain how creepy and unsettling Kylo Ren is.
That gets a short, soft laugh out of her, one she isn't expecting to come at all. A lad. That helps take the tension out of her shoulders again, and she's grateful to him for that.
"I put him there." She says, and it's clear she's proud. She'd have liked to keep there forever, but the one week had been all she had been allowed. "We come from the same place. When he first got here he tried to hurt someone and I stopped him. His powers are limited and I had my staff, so it was an easy fight."
That's an alright start, but it doesn't explain the Enclosure.
"Last time I saw him before coming here we fought too, but I didn't have my staff. I had to fight with this." She holds up the lightsaber, and then turns it on. A shaft of blue light hums to life, lets him see it as a very oddly constructed sword. "I'd never used it before, so I almost lost that fight. It wasn't until the end that I turned it around on him."
He flinches and immediately grabs for his own pistol-- he breaks the action off halfway through, with his hand hovering near his chest, but it's clear that that startled him-- clearer still that he has a history of violence they never really discussed before.
He wants to hear her story. But this is unlike anything he's ever seen before. "What is it?" He asks it while stepping forward, hand no longer wanting to grab for his weapon.
She should have thought about that, considered the fact that she's about positive lightsabers don't exist for most of the people on the Barge, and she immediately regrets being so hasty. She turns it off, but holds it out to him in its harmless state so he can inspect it if he wants to.
She's possessive of it, wouldn't be giving him this chance to touch it if she hadn't made such a bad misstep just now, but she wants to be absolutely positive he knows she's no threat to him.
"It's called a lightsaber. The beam can cut through anything, so it's one of the only weapons that's effective against another lightsaber. Kylo Ren doesn't have his here, but he created one in the Enclosure." Which brings her back to her previous I made a stupid decision statement. "I saw he had it in pieces when I went in, but he put it back together and had it on and pointed at me before I was ready."
He takes it with little hesitation, because there's such a large part of him that's a soldier, that needs to figure these things out. He feels the weight of it in his hand, but is careful not to press on anything.
He looks back up at her and he's frowning when she says that. "He attacked you."
She doesn't answer that, but her jaw clenches in irritation and then she takes another drink of whiskey because she's so frustrated with herself, for this stupid decision that's led to having to explain herself to Tommy.
"If it was any other weapons it would have been different, but he's trained with these since he was young." She says, and it sounds like an excuse and she hates that too. "The first time we fought with them he'd been shot and he was weak, but he's had time to heal here."
His body is stronger even if he's cut off from the Force and while Rey knows she would have eventually won, she would have been fine, relying on the Force isn't her first instinct. She keeps her staff on her back at all times for a reason.
"Rey--" He stops her with a frown, puts the lightsaber back on the table with some reluctance. He doesn't like other people carrying weapons in his cabin, but in this case he won't mention it.
"You don't have to explain. You don't owe that to me."
He'll have to get used to the idea of Rey with her lightsaber in his room if he expects her to visit because it never leaves her side. Kylo Ren wants it, it's too important to her for reasons that have nothing to do with Kylo Ren at all. Even now having it on the table right in front of her instead of in her possession isn't something Rey can stand. She picks it up immediately, puts it back in its holster at her hip and keeps her hand on it for a moment.
"I know I don't owe you anything, but I needed you to know." She's not entirely sure why, but it might have something to do with the way he had sounded when he first asked her what happened. "He isn't usually- he doesn't want to hurt me. I saw that much in one of his memories. He wants to turn me to his side."
And that's what scares her the most. Fighting him, her friends being hurt by him, Finn and Han in danger, she is afraid of those things if she's honest with herself, but most of all is the dark, cold voice in her head that whispers to her when she's lost control of her rage to just kill Kylo Ren and get it over with.
"Which is why you're a warden and he's an inmate," he says, bluntly, his hands still resting flat on the table. He's never been the sort to hide the difference between the two groups, and he isn't planning to start now.
That's a question she doesn't expect, and Rey looks unsure for a moment as she considers why he's asking. He has nothing to gain either way from her falling to the Dark side or staying with the Light and it can't be concern when they don't each other that well yet.
But they are getting there, aren't they? They've seen parts of each other's lives, he's taken the time to teach her about horses and riding them. She doesn't think a few conversations and shared memories is enough to consider someone a friend, but she'd also only spent a few days with Finn and she absolutely thinks of him as her best friend. Chewbacca, too, became like family very quickly.
Either way, despite not understanding Tommy's motives there's nothing to lose in answering him.
"He knows I don't have any training and that I'm..." she trails off, because this is getting close to boasting and she doesn't want to do that, but what are options when she's trying to tell him the truth? "I'm more powerful than he is. He thinks we're tied together so he wants to be the one to teach me."
The bottom line is that he likes her, and Tommy Shelby doesn't like people very easily. He's used to jaded people, whose pain has made them go hard. But Rey has been hurt, and there's something about her that makes him want to reach and protect her from further hurt.
Which is absurd, of course- he can't. No one can protect anyone else from that. But it might be why he asked her did he hurt you instead of anything else.
But now she's distracted him with so much that he doesn't understand. He finally moves from the kitchen to the table, and sits down heavily, motioning for her to do the same. "I don't understand. You have no training, but you're more powerful?"
She does sit, holding her glass between both hands and resting it on the table while she tries to find the quickest, easiest way to explain something she didn't even know for sure existed until recently.
"In the world that I come from there a handful of people who are connected to something called the Force." As soon as she starts, though, it sounds just as unbelievable as she'd expect. Stories of the Jedi and the Force had been exactly that, just stories, tales from the past that she'd overheard and never really put any stock in. "The best way I can explain it is to say it's... it's kind of like magic. In our fight, Kylo Ren used it to throw me against a tree. He'd... also used it before that, to sort of freeze me in place, and then later to look into my mind."
He puts a pensive hand over his mouth while she speaks, trying to take it all in-- of course he's been here more than long enough not to frown at magic, but this just seems so broad.
"And you can connect to it more strongly," he guesses, still frowning.
She nods, watching his reaction closely and feeling oddly relieved that he just... believes her, with no effort. It's surprisingly comforting.
"I was able to turn his link to my mind back of him and see into his. I don't think I can just do that again." She adds the next part quickly, because mind reading is something she doesn't want to be able to do at all. "I'm still untrained, I was only able to do it that time as a defense mechanism."
"I suppose it's like any skill," he muses, dropping his hand and folding them on his lap. "I'd never considered that. Is there anyone else who could teach you- here, at home?"
"Have you met Luke? He's my teacher here and he will be when I go back home, too." There's a thirty year age difference between the Luke here and the Luke she left behind, but she's already told him a lot of impossible things. She can make it worse another day. "But even if there wasn't anyone to teach me, I'd rather never learn than learn from Kylo Ren."
There's so much disdain in her voice when she says that name, undisguised hate, and she knows that's the path to the Dark Side but honestly Rey can't begin to care. Kylo Ren deserves to be hated and she can find a balance between hating him and not falling far enough to his side to be corrupted.
He has met him, briefly, and so he nods- not that he thought the fellow knew anything like that, he's so unassuming at first sight. But he's very glad for her that she gets someone to help her with something that Tommy can't even begin to understand.
But the hatred and disdain in her voice is so clear that he gets distracted from commenting on Luke, or on their powers. "What did he do that you hate him like that, Rey?"
He doesn't disapprove: but he knows women hate less easily than men do. For her to hate someone like this, he must have done something really worthy of that hatred.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 09:26 am (UTC)"That's alright. You clearly had a reason to be running the way you were."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 06:31 pm (UTC)Frustrated with herself, she takes a long drink of whiskey and immediately regrets it. She doesn't spit it back out, doesn't launch into a coughing fit, but she does make a face and suck in a breath after she's swallowed. What the fuck, Tommy, are you trying to kill her?
"What is this?"
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 08:16 pm (UTC)He doesn't really have the time to react to the way she's practically buzzing with frustration, because then she's choking and looking incredibly angry at the top-shelf whiskey he just gave her.
"Whiskey," he says, slowly. Like there cannot possibly be a world out there that doesn't have whiskey.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 08:33 pm (UTC)So she takes another drink, smaller this time, and still makes a face at the burn of it, but this time she's prepared. When she looks at him again, notices how closely he's watching her, she remembers for once in her life that manners are a thing.
"Thank you." The way she says it is a little rough, like she's not used to saying it. She's absolutely not because no one does nice things on Jakku, no one helps people, and she's been here around a month now and she's still not used to people being decent in any way.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 08:41 pm (UTC)It's refreshing, even if it's strange. He watches her process the taste, the burn, the way the liquor must be warming her up.
"Ah, that's alright," he says, slowly. "Least I could do. It always helps me, a good drink."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 08:50 pm (UTC)"There's a man here who goes by the name Kylo Ren," she starts, because that seems like a good place to begin. "He wears a mask."
She stops there, watching his face to wait for some sign of recognition. This will be better if she doesn't have to explain how creepy and unsettling Kylo Ren is.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 08:53 pm (UTC)"Yes. I met him on Zero duty- argumentative lad, him." Only it's already clear there's more to it than that: she seems pinched, coiled tight.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 09:09 pm (UTC)"I put him there." She says, and it's clear she's proud. She'd have liked to keep there forever, but the one week had been all she had been allowed. "We come from the same place. When he first got here he tried to hurt someone and I stopped him. His powers are limited and I had my staff, so it was an easy fight."
That's an alright start, but it doesn't explain the Enclosure.
"Last time I saw him before coming here we fought too, but I didn't have my staff. I had to fight with this." She holds up the lightsaber, and then turns it on. A shaft of blue light hums to life, lets him see it as a very oddly constructed sword. "I'd never used it before, so I almost lost that fight. It wasn't until the end that I turned it around on him."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 09:50 pm (UTC)He wants to hear her story. But this is unlike anything he's ever seen before. "What is it?" He asks it while stepping forward, hand no longer wanting to grab for his weapon.
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Date: 2016-03-15 10:01 pm (UTC)She's possessive of it, wouldn't be giving him this chance to touch it if she hadn't made such a bad misstep just now, but she wants to be absolutely positive he knows she's no threat to him.
"It's called a lightsaber. The beam can cut through anything, so it's one of the only weapons that's effective against another lightsaber. Kylo Ren doesn't have his here, but he created one in the Enclosure." Which brings her back to her previous I made a stupid decision statement. "I saw he had it in pieces when I went in, but he put it back together and had it on and pointed at me before I was ready."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 10:17 pm (UTC)He looks back up at her and he's frowning when she says that. "He attacked you."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 10:24 pm (UTC)"If it was any other weapons it would have been different, but he's trained with these since he was young." She says, and it sounds like an excuse and she hates that too. "The first time we fought with them he'd been shot and he was weak, but he's had time to heal here."
His body is stronger even if he's cut off from the Force and while Rey knows she would have eventually won, she would have been fine, relying on the Force isn't her first instinct. She keeps her staff on her back at all times for a reason.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 10:35 pm (UTC)"You don't have to explain. You don't owe that to me."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 10:56 pm (UTC)"I know I don't owe you anything, but I needed you to know." She's not entirely sure why, but it might have something to do with the way he had sounded when he first asked her what happened. "He isn't usually- he doesn't want to hurt me. I saw that much in one of his memories. He wants to turn me to his side."
And that's what scares her the most. Fighting him, her friends being hurt by him, Finn and Han in danger, she is afraid of those things if she's honest with herself, but most of all is the dark, cold voice in her head that whispers to her when she's lost control of her rage to just kill Kylo Ren and get it over with.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 12:00 pm (UTC)"How is he trying to sway you, then?"
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Date: 2016-03-16 06:10 pm (UTC)But they are getting there, aren't they? They've seen parts of each other's lives, he's taken the time to teach her about horses and riding them. She doesn't think a few conversations and shared memories is enough to consider someone a friend, but she'd also only spent a few days with Finn and she absolutely thinks of him as her best friend. Chewbacca, too, became like family very quickly.
Either way, despite not understanding Tommy's motives there's nothing to lose in answering him.
"He knows I don't have any training and that I'm..." she trails off, because this is getting close to boasting and she doesn't want to do that, but what are options when she's trying to tell him the truth? "I'm more powerful than he is. He thinks we're tied together so he wants to be the one to teach me."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 09:25 pm (UTC)Which is absurd, of course- he can't. No one can protect anyone else from that. But it might be why he asked her did he hurt you instead of anything else.
But now she's distracted him with so much that he doesn't understand. He finally moves from the kitchen to the table, and sits down heavily, motioning for her to do the same. "I don't understand. You have no training, but you're more powerful?"
no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 09:55 pm (UTC)"In the world that I come from there a handful of people who are connected to something called the Force." As soon as she starts, though, it sounds just as unbelievable as she'd expect. Stories of the Jedi and the Force had been exactly that, just stories, tales from the past that she'd overheard and never really put any stock in. "The best way I can explain it is to say it's... it's kind of like magic. In our fight, Kylo Ren used it to throw me against a tree. He'd... also used it before that, to sort of freeze me in place, and then later to look into my mind."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 06:29 am (UTC)"And you can connect to it more strongly," he guesses, still frowning.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 06:40 am (UTC)"I was able to turn his link to my mind back of him and see into his. I don't think I can just do that again." She adds the next part quickly, because mind reading is something she doesn't want to be able to do at all. "I'm still untrained, I was only able to do it that time as a defense mechanism."
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 07:16 am (UTC)"Have you met Luke? He's my teacher here and he will be when I go back home, too." There's a thirty year age difference between the Luke here and the Luke she left behind, but she's already told him a lot of impossible things. She can make it worse another day. "But even if there wasn't anyone to teach me, I'd rather never learn than learn from Kylo Ren."
There's so much disdain in her voice when she says that name, undisguised hate, and she knows that's the path to the Dark Side but honestly Rey can't begin to care. Kylo Ren deserves to be hated and she can find a balance between hating him and not falling far enough to his side to be corrupted.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 08:15 am (UTC)But the hatred and disdain in her voice is so clear that he gets distracted from commenting on Luke, or on their powers. "What did he do that you hate him like that, Rey?"
He doesn't disapprove: but he knows women hate less easily than men do. For her to hate someone like this, he must have done something really worthy of that hatred.
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