Masquerade [ Ft. Banks & November ]

Fire, fire, fire. Kylo Ren felt like his whole body was burning. His forehead was mopped with sweat, partially from physical exertion and partially from having a flesh searing instrument waved in front of his skull for a few minutes. He wasn’t sure who that woman was, but he didn’t want to see her or anyone like her again - under any circumstances.

And that knowledge, that little admission to himself, really bothered him. He’d always thought of himself as an explorer in the ways of power, desperately trying to piece together the unknown and the untold, and even when he struggled, he could tell himself he was ahead of the masses.

But this woman fought like nothing he’d ever seen before. Carried herself like nothing he’d seen before. It reminded him of how weak he felt, how far he had to go. Disturbed him. His legs were burning too, but he ignored them for the moment, looking around the cave. It was still bustling, just in a different way. People were securing the area, patting each other on the back, reporting to the ship. Kylo had to assume the fighting was still pitched in other parts of the city.

He craned his neck to the side and looked Phasma over.

“Okay. You had a point about wording things vaguely. I admit that now.”

He tilted his head to the side and put his head on her shoulder. Of course he was aware it was vaguely inappropriate, but he doubted anyone cared in that moment.

“Glad you’re alive, though.” He pushed his head off her shoulder for a minute, looking over her awkward posture from her earlier injury. “At least for the moment.”
 
It was necessary that she made that point, smirking softly when his head settled against her shoulder. Out of a developing habit her hand raised and danced over the side of his cheek, welcoming the silent embrace. Shifting it away just as quickly as it had settled against his skin, Phasma watched the troopers as they ventured around beneath the gate, overwhelmed by the sights as they began body clean up. " You know, I probably should see someone about this eventually. " The other troopers would stop gawking around and climb the staircase eventually, of course. Curiosity would prevail as usual.

" It's starting to feel like lightsabers are just common items now. "

However now the woman could hear Hux's voice, reminding her that they were both still technically on duty.

" Someone answer me! The. . The one with the other saber, does Ashara have her? "

There was that name again.

" Who? " She could hear the exasperation just oozing from his voice at such a question, even more so when it sounded genuine on her end.

" Lady Paulik? Ash- nevermind. Where is Ren? "

" Your husband is calling about your assigned wife. " The protest of Hux disagreeing with her choice of wording for him caused her to pull her own piece away from her ear, merely setting it down with a faint cringe.

" You'd think he wouldn't act like that with his plan going so well. For the most part. "
 
Oh, it just seemed like a lot to her. He'd read enough books and watched enough footage that mysterious armed strangers and vague speeches about unleashing ultimate power were... well, almost par for the course for him.

But even so, the circumstances for this were special. Here was something that could only be unlocked by a user of the dark side. And yet the Emperor hadn't used it, had kept it under lock and key. Had he been afraid of it? Either way, its existence was common knowledge now, or would be soon, and that was never a good sign.

"How many was that this week?" Kylo smirked and counted on his fingers. "Five. Five this week? That's a lot."

Kylo put his finger over his lips, grabbed the earpiece, and chucked it into the water with absurd, unrealistic distance. He'd already sent Ashara to the Gauntlet, which meant she'd be meeting Hux a few minutes from now.

"That woman in the mask must have dozens of.. secrets. I almost don't want to know where she comes from. I can almost guarantee it'll be our next headache. I would love to just... get away from here."

Here being... the endless politics of the First Order? The Emperor's creepy cave-archive-thing? The “philosophical implications” Bel Iblis was talking about? Naboo altogether? He bounced the phrase around in his own mind, but he didn't have a perfect answer.
 
To say the expression on her face was anything short than pouting as she watched the metal piece disappear into the distance before hitting the water with a soft plunk, it would make you an immediate liar. Thankfully, Ren had taken that bullet himself, unsure whether he had meant to or not. Whether the moment of distress on her face was a result of him throwing her device or tipping around the subject soon became clear, blinking softly at him as he tried to fence in the situation by offering a distraction. Technically, he wasn't lying by using maneuvering and avoidance tactics, but it still seemed shifty.

" That was just unnecessary Ren. "

No matter. If he was going to be that way, Phasma would simply ask someone else about the woman attached to the name. " Oh please, of course you want to know. It's going to eat you up if you don't find out for yourself. " And it would, she had been around him long enough to watch it happen in several other instances. " Are you suggesting a vacation? " Turning her head to notice a trooper appear at the top of the stairs, it was a few quick steps before he helped Phasma up, idle chatter in assessing her wounds and turning to Ren to do the same. Once the three reached the bottom of the stairs, her bright eyes grazed over the gleam of the long forgotten yacht.

" I wonder what they'll do with that thing. "
 
“The question isn’t what they’ll do with it.” He took a couple of casual steps closer, looking from side to side with a mysterious, scheming sort of look. Most everyone still seemed occupied. And it didn’t look like Hux was in someone else’s ear trying to track them down. Count that as one thing to be thankful for. “It’s what’s inside that’s interesting. Gold? Maps to some ancient cache of secrets? The galaxy’s most amazing liquor cabinet?”

He shrugged. The mind boggled at the possibilities. But it was more immediately interesting than the masked woman (which tingled in his mind with a weird mix of curiosity and dread), or his weird “relationship” with Ashara. Because, fine, they were interesting, but they all promised to bring more work with them.

He was almost certain that there wasn’t going to be work waiting for him on the ship.

Yes. almost certain. Kylo crept towards the thing, sliding under its shadow and looking for some mechanism that he’d need to touch, or some weird security measure in that vein. But there was a simple, ancient looking lock on the door that Kylo easily popped open. The door fell open, colliding with the ground with a heavy noise that drew much less attention than he’d expected.

“I’m pretty sure that everyone’s going to strangle us if we sneak into yet another weird ship and start fucking before they can give us anything else to do.” Kylo climbed up the first couple of stairs, taking a whiff of the stale air as he climbed aboard. He expected the place to look and feel like a museum. But he hadn’t expected it to look quite like this. He climbed back down the steps, his expression dripping with shock and amusement.

“But I’m not saying that should stop us. I mean… I think you’ll really want to see this.”
 
Speaking in a soft tone that she was fine to stand alone, her body had started to embrace the pain as a warm tingle rather than what had nearly rocked her back to the ground a few times before. Sure it was simply the tight bodysuit beneath her armor, soaking it up and preventing more of her blood from leaving her body, watching Ren get that look in his eyes. Up to something. While he was more concerned about the probably not functioning yacht's insides, her eyes again danced over the shiny metal, amazed that it didn't appear filthy despite these conditions. There was no denying the fine tastes the man had, and all the things Ren fired off could be a possibility.

Turning her head after the door dropped, only one or two troopers looking that way, and upon only noticing Phasma standing there alone, merely shrugged and went on about their conversation. He was offering this as a distraction, and while normally she might have been upset, the brown eyed woman moved toward the stairs, looking up and waiting for a sound of something. Infested with spiders, some massive slug attached to his face, a very hostile wookie. But when he reappeared, Phasma subconsciously relieved nothing had latched itself to him, speaking now. " I hope that's not how you lure women into your bed. "

Walking behind him once he was sure she would follow him, though she was proud of the troopers for taking control of the situation, she almost wanted to yell at them for being so oblivious. Ah, some other time. " You almost got your face split open, and I'm covered in my own blood, but you're still considering having sex. Amazing. "
 
"That's an interesting choice of words," he said, smirking at Phasma and narrowing his eyes. "Lure. Maybe I just ask them. Have you thought about that?"

He extended his hand to her, pulling her up the stairs and into the main body of the ship. The thing looked... old. Immaculate, but old. The control panels were coated in shades of brown and pale beige, and the sleek, modern design of the last ship he'd been on had changed to... well, something that probably seemed futuristic forty years ago.

Kylo looked upwards at the wide, arcing roof, cutting his eyes as she predictably criticized his sound and generous offer. "I'm not saying that we should do it right this minute. I'm just saying... you know... a few minutes."

He grabbed her by the hand and took her towards the big central room. An interesting looking room, he thought. A little round table where deals were made, little droids the size of his pinky that even now still struggled up and down the carpet cleaning the rug. And on that table there was...

A weird looking black container, with white spirals on the side.

"What do you think..."

Kylo cleared his throat and tipped the box open. And then it glowed, the light tall and impossibly bright.

And despite the age of everything around them, it carried the promise of something impossibly new.
 
Whether or not Phasma would simply admit out loud that he was just that appealing, it was left in the air when she rolled her eyes at him, " I still consider that a part of the lure. " She knew the potential of that voice of his, after all. Although Phasma let her interest lay majority in the hags of the shining outer portion of the ship, she couldn't deny that despite the smell that needed to be aired out far and beyond, it almost felt as though they had stepped through some sort of capsule. She couldn't begin to imagine Darth Sidious as anything more than a greedy man, consumed by ideas that while would have been splendid, were blinded by the goal of being all powerful.

That, and one really had to wonder if Lord Vader had actually been the one to kill him. Well. She'd seen enough inner turmoil within men to gather her own answers. " Ren, you know how much I just adore making you wait for sex, " The pull into the next room felt odd to her again, though without any waychful eyes she let it happen. Or at least, that's what Phasma told herself. Just like his, her eyes zeroed in on the decorative box, placing her bottom lip between her teeth as he opened it before properly asking. " Reckless. "

But, then again here they were, holding hands and squinting lightly at some beam of light.
 
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STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO

WHENEVER WE FEEL LIKE DOING IT​
 
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