exhuxperation: (shadows)
general armitage "wafer crisp" hux ([personal profile] exhuxperation) wrote2016-03-13 11:40 pm

04. mental link






COMMAND
over oneself and others



AMBITION
nothing will stand in my way



ORDER
chaos will not be tolerated



MANY
over the individual






narcissithstic: (The promises we made)

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-04-29 06:53 am (UTC)(link)
Stop.

[Said more for his own benefit than for Hux himself, meant to cut short the anxious rush of adrenaline as it threatens to grip them both. The catalyst and its proxy.

Ren isn't a Jedi, nor is he Cathaway: he lacks the patience to tolerate someone else's fear for any significant amount of time and remain wholly unaffected.
] You did not rise to power cowing to the unknown.

[Because for what little credit he grants General Hux, that much Ren believes is true, if only because the First Order is as savage a test as any: the frail, the incapable and unqualified are cut clean without mercy. Yes, there was a familiarity to be found in it that remains absent in the Nest for the most part, but if Hux was incapable of adapting he would have been a lieutenant, a commander at best, not Kylo Ren's supposed equal in name alone.

Ren slips forward from the edge of the chamber, sitting before Hux to leave their attentive stares level, the air around them silent as death.
]

What do you know of the Force?

narcissithstic: (that you lie wide awake)

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-04-30 08:18 am (UTC)(link)
['Or something of the like'.

It's like listening to a child recite a definition they haven't bothered to so much as glimpse at, and Ren (for all the civility he's mustering) can't help but curl his lip at hearing it slip from between Hux's teeth. If that is all he knows or cares to of the world beyond his immediate, tangible scope, then there would be no helping him.
]

Brace yourself, but do not buckle.

[The difference between absorbing a blow and being broken by it, and he expects Hux to understand without needing instruction. From there, only a few beats pass-- long enough for the General to find his own footing-- and then Ren cuts into the air between them, carving it away with a deft precision: flesh peeled back to expose bone, to expose them to the vast, infinite span of the universe and all within it. A hundred thousand systems, countless beating hearts, the heated spark of life beginning and the hollowness of death where it pulls, spiralling, consuming. If he were to reach with open eyes, he'd see himself reflected through the fractal patterns of lives never lived-- roads never taken. An emperor, a soldier, a boy discarded and forgotten.

Distant as their galaxy is, Ren can bring it close-- so close that it's no longer the silence of a living nest coiled around them, but the hum of the Finalizer as it drifts between stars.

And it smells of ash. Of cooling blasters and Phasma's favored polish.

Of home.
]

narcissithstic: (tell me)

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-05-01 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
[And for that, Ren does withdraw: swift and not wholly unaffected for it (his own breath trembles and his throat feels raw, but he weathers it) leaving Hux numb in comparison to the vibrant flow of emotion and life that had just funneled through him as a conduit. Even the call of the symbiote is nothing. Quiet.

It's exposure that makes one tolerant of a poison. Measured, not constant, and in this, Hux is fortunate to struggle not as most Force-sensitive children did— as he himself did— without a hand at his side to still the noise of something so infinite, so hateful. He waits. Grants the General time before bothering to speak.
]

Breathe.

[Forgetting to is so easy. This much he knows from experience - a problem he still combats.]

narcissithstic: (were like a drug)

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-05-02 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Hux knows the concept, Ren is certain of it: to have come so far without a knowledge of exposure would be an impossibility, but he understands why the General asks. Exhaustion bites at their minds for how linked they are, a double-edged sword (he can act as a brace for Hux's weariness, but he feels the drain of someone else's struggle laid across the span of his shoulders, effectively doubling his own). Thinking with any amount of clarity is difficult, even moreso for someone so unused to the cost.

Ren holds a beat, and then asks, purposefully:
]

How much combat training did you endure within the academy?

narcissithstic: (the secrets that we sold)

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-05-02 07:47 am (UTC)(link)
[Good. He's starting to find his footing.]

The concept is the same as any endurance training: exposure lessens the impact, strengthens the muscle, the bone— the mind. [Only callouses born of pain and repetition make wielding a saber a possibility. Frailty, in all aspects, must be washed clean. Erased.] When you no longer bend to it, you can control it.

Restrain it as necessary. [A beat, and then, if only because he knows Hux imagines Ren incapable:] —And it is necessary.

narcissithstic: (to prove you're right?)

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-05-02 08:44 am (UTC)(link)
Again. [Ren agrees, a note of satisfaction nestling in the core of his chest.

Hours of repitition, the pitch and pull of reality as it's expanded and condensed over and over again. The pain of loss, a rising tide of overwhelming joy - this is their sparring practice: a flurry of blows exchanged without lifting a hand, until Hux seems....transparent somehow. Worn thin. Too spent to go on no matter what his still-beating heart might demand.

They've broached the crest of Hux's struggle, at least. Enough that he might, with determination, begin to master what thoughts and sensations reach him, barring the Force itself. Which should be easy: he spends little time with Ahsoka or Anakin.

Sweat peppers his brow; he stays rigid.
] That's enough for today. Any further and you risk injury.

narcissithstic: (were like a drug)

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-05-02 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[The benefit of the Force is foresight. Possibilities, endless and infinite, and the moment Hux begins to slip forward, Ren knows what is to come: a broad arm extends, snapped forward beneath the span of Hux's collarbone to keep his head from connecting with the floor. The last thing the man needs is a concussion after a thorough bout of mental training.

From there it's easy to shift him, drawing Hux forward into his arms and rising to carry him to the nearest chamber, where Ren had been perched just before they'd begun. To slip him inside with a heavy-handed efficiency more suited to hauling bodies than living beings. He follows shortly thereafter (fortunate that Hux is so small as to be nonexistent - the capsules barely hold one person, and Ren is nothing if not massive in his own right) clambering in to finish ensuring Hux's head or shoulders aren't somehow jammed against the fibrous pillow at an odd angle.
]

narcissithstic: (truth has holes)

Ruins the moment

[personal profile] narcissithstic 2016-05-02 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
You haven't been sleeping. [Is the response that comes, devoid of emotion as if stating the most obvious fact known to their collective consciousness. He knows Hux would argue that he does in fact rest, but that's comparing his schedule to that of a trooper on tour or an officer before a deadline: a bare minimum at best.

After what he's attempted to endure— what he'll need to if he is to master his symbiote— that won't suffice.

He presses his fingers to the paneling, feeling out— ah. There it is.
] The Nest can speed your recovery while you rest.

[The wound from Chewbacca's bowcaster, festering from being repeatedly beaten, had healed in a day while Cathaway stood careful watch over him. If the General needs anything now that Ren can estimate, it's this.] Hold still.

[One hand curled beneath Hux's jaw, he presses the General's head away from him, down towards his shoulder instead to expose the base of his skull beneath fine hair. Needle in his other hand, Ren pauses only for a moment before he's certain he's located the scar left behind from their initial hatching.

And then, without ceremony, he punctures skin, securing the connection with a clean, efficient stab.
]