( The lines on their palms cross and intersect, weave highways and star charts out of burns and impacted dirt and dried mud. Whatever it is that is solidifying between them in this shared space, it thrums like a separate, deep heartbeat, tangible yet still abstract, physical yet incorporeal. He can't say for certain what it is that inspires him to reach out for her, only knows the deep well of satisfaction that fills within him when her added input across the bond brings Yavin IV's flora into sharp focus. Snow and ice does not immediately recede but gradually disengages, sloughing off of trees not in a way typical of snowfall but more akin to washing dirt away with water.
Before long the air is full of the scent of pine, sharp, dry needles crunching underfoot as Kylo shifts and drops her hand. There is no cloying darkness here, no heavy, dense fog that rolls through the underbrush, chokes the vegetation and blots out the sun that manages to wink through the trees. The forest around them is thick with tree trunks, resembling those on Starkiller Base inexplicably, and they stretch high enough that he would have to crane his neck all the way back just to catch a glimpse of the topmost layer of branches. Save for the wind that rustles leaves and bushes as it whispers through the foliage, the world is quiet. No whispers, no encouragement. Just their breathing permeating the atmosphere.
Kylo knows that he might have killed her on Starkiller. Or at least attempted to persuade her the way he has in previous encounters, draw her down to his level and below, build her back up in his image, in Snoke's image. Their conjoined lean toward the dark there was great enough that he could feel it manifesting, grabbing at him, pulling him back willingly with an old beckon. It isn't conducive to what he's trying to accomplish here, and while he's not sure where the knowledge or motivation came from in order to change the path they walk, he thinks he can pinpoint it to what she had said. There's nothing worth fearing in the past. He's never been afraid of the past, but he's never been interested in revisiting it until now. She said she needed to see everything. )
There's more control, here. It's quiet. I know you can feel the difference. ( He assumes that she'll know what he means by that, note the distinct lack of persuasion inherent in the landscape. High noon sunshine winks down through the treetops, piercing the grove they stand in with little pockets of light that illuminate the world only partially. ) Starkiller Base was mired in darkness. It would have dragged us both down. ( He turns and starts to walk again, crunching through dry leaves and twigs. When he glances over at her under the shadow of a heavy brow, Rey's cheeks are no longer the high red of frostbite. The words that come out of his mouth are unexpected given his dissociation from the boy he was, and they feel strange and clunky on his tongue. ) I was born here. If there was ever a time when things were quiet, it was here. Not completely silent, but quieter than it would be eventually.
( She had started to say something, before he offered her his hand, and he considers revisiting the curiosity now but decides to tuck it away for the time being. They're drowning in the past enough as it is, for two people who claim that it holds little bearing on the present and the future. )
You said you needed to see everything. ( They step over a fallen log, moss-eaten and sprouting flowers thick with thorns. His boots crunch underneath the impact of his weight on the other side. ) Define everything. What do you need to see?
no subject
Before long the air is full of the scent of pine, sharp, dry needles crunching underfoot as Kylo shifts and drops her hand. There is no cloying darkness here, no heavy, dense fog that rolls through the underbrush, chokes the vegetation and blots out the sun that manages to wink through the trees. The forest around them is thick with tree trunks, resembling those on Starkiller Base inexplicably, and they stretch high enough that he would have to crane his neck all the way back just to catch a glimpse of the topmost layer of branches. Save for the wind that rustles leaves and bushes as it whispers through the foliage, the world is quiet. No whispers, no encouragement. Just their breathing permeating the atmosphere.
Kylo knows that he might have killed her on Starkiller. Or at least attempted to persuade her the way he has in previous encounters, draw her down to his level and below, build her back up in his image, in Snoke's image. Their conjoined lean toward the dark there was great enough that he could feel it manifesting, grabbing at him, pulling him back willingly with an old beckon. It isn't conducive to what he's trying to accomplish here, and while he's not sure where the knowledge or motivation came from in order to change the path they walk, he thinks he can pinpoint it to what she had said. There's nothing worth fearing in the past. He's never been afraid of the past, but he's never been interested in revisiting it until now. She said she needed to see everything. )
There's more control, here. It's quiet. I know you can feel the difference. ( He assumes that she'll know what he means by that, note the distinct lack of persuasion inherent in the landscape. High noon sunshine winks down through the treetops, piercing the grove they stand in with little pockets of light that illuminate the world only partially. ) Starkiller Base was mired in darkness. It would have dragged us both down. ( He turns and starts to walk again, crunching through dry leaves and twigs. When he glances over at her under the shadow of a heavy brow, Rey's cheeks are no longer the high red of frostbite. The words that come out of his mouth are unexpected given his dissociation from the boy he was, and they feel strange and clunky on his tongue. ) I was born here. If there was ever a time when things were quiet, it was here. Not completely silent, but quieter than it would be eventually.
( She had started to say something, before he offered her his hand, and he considers revisiting the curiosity now but decides to tuck it away for the time being. They're drowning in the past enough as it is, for two people who claim that it holds little bearing on the present and the future. )
You said you needed to see everything. ( They step over a fallen log, moss-eaten and sprouting flowers thick with thorns. His boots crunch underneath the impact of his weight on the other side. ) Define everything. What do you need to see?