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WISH LIST

★ my dark au kink:
+ being captured by the first order and subjected to reconditioning
+ trying to turn him back with the power of gay love and friendship (and possibly failing)
+ he was always a first order tie fighter pilot instead of winter soldiered
+ poe and finn first order murder squad (dynamics if they were both stormtroopers? running away together?)
+ ^ part b: the fam that gets captured and reconditioned together… stays…together…
+ Interesting Dynamics with kylo and hux from dark aus

★ finn stuff
+ what will they do after the war? romantic vacations? homesteading? sending finn's spit to space 23andme?
+ infinite escape reimagining/aus, stormpilot escape room reigning champions

★ rey stuff
+ relationship of convenience because they're both In Denial
+ sith princess rey aus where he tries to save her and/or she turns him

★ kylo stuff
+ infinite interrogating/torture room reimagining/aus
+ ^ part b: stockholm syndrome?
+ We Need to Talk about Leia

★ general
+ honestly anything regarding leia (esp processing grief post-tros)
+ talking about his sketchy spice runner past (possibly playing things taking place during that time in his life?)
+ ^ same for things taking place during academy/new republic tbh
+ i love aus. modern aus, vampire aus, a/b/o aus, let's au the entire world
+ i prefer m/m for poe but am good with most ships

kinks if ya nasty

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[ It wasn't like the Empress to slip away. Her life since her discovery had been ruled by rote, a system of structure that kept her in line and thus kept the entire Empire afloat as well. She had a vast armada at her disposal and she had been taught precisely how to use it to bring entire star systems to heel. It was a life that had been spent training to capture as much of the galaxy as she could, and lead the empire that would hold it in its grip. Still, when she was away from it all Rey found something closer to the peace she imagined individuals that were not under the duracrete grip of an entire Empire must enjoy thousandfold.

Perhaps most people wouldn’t think of a solo mission to an isolated plane as a type of reprieve, but away from the admiralty and all the pomp and circumstance that helped keep her Empire afloat she could slouch in the pilot’s chair of her shuttle and squint against the light of a world she had not yet gotten to enjoy - or conquer. With power came the need for constant the Empress had to calculate every movement, every word, and every choice was the subject of carefully laid tactics. Here she could just be, just for a moment. She could climb and hunt and build a fire like she had once in the brief, feral time before she had been swept up in the Empire, handed a legacy where she had none, and groomed to carry it.

The pains and paces her master had put her through had worn on her, it was a high price to ask of anyone, much less a malleable orphan who’d grown up first in the harsh desert sun and come of age in the deepest shadows of the First Order. She knew how to play the game, knew when to draw away, and put herself back together before the stench of weakness grew too strong to hide from anyone. It wasn’t that she felt especially weak, but the restlessness that had come with duty had gnawed too persistently to ignore and ruins were an indisputable reason to slip away and indulge the part of her that wished she could wander.

Though it had seen better days the temple above was still breathtaking, though the inside had long been picked clean by looters and explorers alike. Rey was hardly disheartened by the state she found the crumbling stone structure, all of her reading suggested that there was another larger subterranean structure beneath.

The only problem was finding it. The ancient codex that had brought her here hadn’t gone into a lot of detail about that part of things - but Rey was nothing if not persistent, and as she strode silently through the ancient stone walls the wheels of her mind turned relentlessly in the direction of finding a way. ]

[ times had been hard on the scraps that remained of the resistance. all poe ever wanted was to make her proud, to honor her, to carry on her legacy. but without leia, without the last jedi, and with no more than a handful of resistance members left to fight, what legacy was there? he couldn't confide his doubt to anyone, not even finn. he was certain that finn knew, though. the words weren't necessary; exhaustion had a way of making him an open book.

they couldn't fight proper anymore, not after exegol. all that was left was doing what he'd spent the last year doing as commander: trying to find allies. more people to fight and more supplies. the more time he spent on that, the less time he'd have to spend in his abyss of grief and self-loathing. that felt like too much to share with finn, too. and unfair — rey meant more to him than she had to poe. (he wonders if she meant more to finn than he did, too, what with their secrets. but it's another thing he can't bear to ask. what would the answer do, besides hurt him?)

so this time, on this stupid fetch quest for ancient tech for a junker who just might give them junk bucket ships in exchange, he insists on going alone. they don't have numbers for more — and if something happened to him, there would be finn. that's the reason he gives for going alone, that one of them needs to stay behind, but sometimes it's nice to be alone. to not have to be anything to anyone else. just a dude with clinical depression, survivor's guilt, and severe ptsd trawling through some ruins.

when he hears someone else approaching, he freezes up. tenses behind a pillar, immediately reaching for his blaster. he's not expecting a person at all, maybe some kind of creature that made a nice and cozy home here.

he nearly drops his blaster when he shifts to get a look at the source of the noise and it's…

rey?

but not rey. her face, but different. everything slightly off about her. uncanny valley, or her entire existence shifted an inch to the left. (not that he can judge; he's different too. more scruffy and dead-eyed.) ]

Rey? Is that — it's you, right?

[ against what should be his better judgment, he steps out to get a better look. to make himself known — not that she needed the help, probably. Force Stuff.

(finn should have been here. finn would know what to say. finn is the one who deserves to see her.) ]

[ Was it?

For a moment her eyes narrowed, tensing as he called her name and revealed himself. Was it her? The question unsettled the Empress, who dug her heels in against the thought, drawing a sharp breath against the stale air of the ruin as her face hardened. She knew him, and the sight of him moved some part of her that she had firmly decided to put down and walk away from.

While he may have lamented it, Finn’s absence was a blessing to Rey, allowing her the certainty that filled her movements as she lifted her hand, drawing on and through the Force to tighten around Poe, attempting to immobilize him before he thought the better of not having aimed and shot at her while he had the chance to do it. ]

What are you doing here?

[ The disdain in her voice was evident, already aware that she should not expect an answer from him, but needing to say something, anything to help her feel just a little bit stronger than she did when first laying eyes on him. Things had changed, she knew who she was, and she knew this person was not the Rey Poe, or Finn thought they knew. She had surrendered a part of herself to something greater - and in return the power, the certainty had somehow been enough to blot out the drum of the steadfast heart that beat beneath her ribs. It wasn’t the first time that feeling lost had been enough to drive someone to drastic measures, and perhaps those that knew her would have said she would be the last to fall.

With enough pain, with enough pressure, everybody falls apart. ]

You won’t be leaving here alive, whatever you came here for.

[ the way she looks at him — the way it feels like the air around him is crushing him — confirms what he already knew in his heart all this time: rey was gone. whoever... whatever... was left, this wasn't rey. the dark side warped her into something beyond recognition.

but even knowing it in his heart, seeing it before his eyes... what if there was some bit of rey left? what if he could bring her back? he knows he's not the right person for this; they were never that close and he almost certain isn't soft enough to turn someone back to the light. he solves his problems by blowing them up. ]

Doesn't matter.

[ could not give less of a shit about scavenging for a junker right now. he tries moving towards her, against the force. nope, can't. (it brings back some Bad memories, kylo ren memories. but he's pushing them down.) ]

C'mon. You don't need to do that. [ that being... kill him??? ] You could come back with me. Don't you wanna see Finn again?

I could kill you.

[ There’s an almost novel thoughtfulness to her words, her wrist flicking smoothly in an effort to pull him across that space between them, confident she could restrain him with minimal strain, and certain she could maintain that hold for a while.

It’s the mention of Finn that halts her, as he must have known it would have and Rey had to pause, swallowing down the pain of the thought like poison, using the sting of it all to pull him towards her a bit more speedily. ]

I don’t want to see Finn.

[ The thought of it hurts and while she can use that hurt to feed her own ire, to have actually been confronted with Finn would have proven to be a greater challenge - even lost to the maelstrom of thoughts and impulses that felt as though they came from within as well as without, a person didn’t just forget their first friend.

Lucky for her it’s Poe she’s been given to contend with and the course of action seems so simple and precise she almost regretted how quickly she would execute it.

Which was when the floor began to shake. ]

[ yeah. poe knows what the ruin shaking around them means, and he knows it isn't good. (maybe if it collapsed on both of them, that would bring an end to the war? that's some extremely hopeful thinking on his part.) ]

You don't mean that. [ he really hopes she doesn't, because "talk about finn" was the beginning and end of his master plan. ]

I know we didn't -- we fought a lot, but it's because you're like me. [ this is honest and from the heart, at least. ] And I always feel like everything's falling apart around me. [ a beat. ] Metaphorically, not --

Look. Finn wants to see you. Come back. We could change things. All of us, together.

[ She didn't mean that, but it was nothing he needed to trouble himself about. Rey had made her choices, and the pieces had fallen as a result of it. It's the word 'together' that stuck the hardest and was the most difficult to shake off. Power had brought a level of isolation that she had feared as a child with it and lost io the dark side it was a weighty burden.

It was a burden that at the moment she didn't want to recall - not like this, not in front of Poe Dameron - or anyone. She had decided that whatever pain it brought her would be hers to bear alone and while her rise to power had blotted some of that ache out, it couldn’t diminish it entirely.

Lucky for her she didn’t have to deal with it then. Instead it was the ground beneath their feet that became the real issue, shifting until it smoothed out at an angle, swift enough to knock them both off their feet and send them down into whatever cavern that slope deposited them into. ]

[ if she reached out with the force, she could feel the loneliness bleeding out of him, too. poe felt burdened with guilt and responsibility that threatened to drown him every day. trying to lighten the load with finn hadn't worked in the way he'd been hoping it would when he made him co-general. the space between them had grown into an ocean. there was too much darkness in his depths, things that he wasn't sure finn could understand. repeatedly leading good people — his friends — into massacres. that guilt was his alone.

maybe that was why he wouldn't let himself give up on her. if he could save rey, if he could do this one thing, maybe he could redeem himself. (or maybe he was hoping they were still the same at heart and she could connect to him in a way that finn couldn't.) ]

Rey!

[ but now the ground is falling apart beneath them, so he'll have to return to that train of thought at a later time. he scrambles for purchase on the floor as they slide and tries to grab for her at the same time -- in the end succeeding at nothing. oh, to be yeeted into the yeet hole. ]

[ Choosing not to look too deeply at her reasons for doing so, Rey’s hand reached for Poe, trying to cushion his fall and her own as they hurtled through the dark passage that had opened beneath their feet and forced them to go below.

The Empress still hit the ground harder than she would have liked to, though she had done what she could for both of them. Whatever shock she felt from the impact was forced aside, and Rey got back to her feet with an obstinate quickness. ]

Are you dead?

[ It wouldn’t be very helpful to be trapped in whatever subterranean cavern they’d fallen into with a corpse. Squinting in the dim light of the caves Rey could hear water, the sound drawing her to unsheath and ignite her lightsaber to take in her surroundings fully, and, of course, ensure the man who was all but destined to become a prisoner of war once she knew the way out had not met his untimely demise. ]

[ well, she cushioned the fall enough for him to... not die? not die, but be very sore. the side of him that hit the ground vibrated with soreness. ]

Am I... no. [ he groans while moving to get up. he's had worse pain, but it doesn't make the current pain great. ] At least, I don't think I am. Half sure.

[ it was familiar, in an eerie deja vu kind of way. falling into a dark cavern, the hum of her (stupid) lightsaber in lieu of a flashlight. but there's no finn (or the rest of the squad). rey is rey, but... not.

he had not planned for this turn of events in any way, shape, or form. there wasn't a way to escape from rey if she decided to turn that lightsaber on him. unless he felt like taking a chance and swimming away in mystery water (from the sound of it?) up ahead.

so, petulantly, following this echo of events, he grabs a flashlight from his pockets and turns it on. maybe he would also like to see things of his own volition. ]

Didn't know all this was down here.

You didn't? Why come here then?

[ Unlike Poe the Empress had some idea of what was waiting in the ruins, though the size of the underground chamber was unexpected. She had done a better job cushioning her own fall and she could tell as much from the slightly pained expression in Poe's eyes. She hadn't been trying to spare him from any discomfort so much as keep him alive, and since that had worked she ignored the look on his face, turning her attention back to the depths of the chamber illuminated by the glow of her weapon. ]

This water has to come from somewhere, it's not stagnant. If we can't find a way out above it, we'll have to find where it comes from and try to swim for it.

[ Swimming was not her preference, nor was it her strongest suit. She had never needed to know how to do it until recently, and on that occasion had managed to survive through the well-timed flailing of her arms and legs, somehow working herself to a place where she could drag herself back onto dry land. Had they needed to look for an out beneath the surface of the water it would not be in her favor.

Her eyes searched the shadows striding forward on a straight expanse of rock that rose above the water as she ruminated on the possibility of trying to force her way out of here. She was no stranger to lifting rocks, and whether he knew it or not Poe was her prisoner now. Rey imagined that Poe was well versed in the ways of war that he had some level of awareness of this fact. Rey had no doubt that under normal circumstances control of Poe would be easy to retain, but swimming would require a relinquishing of control, and the Empress had yet to find a time in her life where that had been the appropriate course of action. ]

You know, most people don't get the luxury of having the choice of how I treat them, but you Poe seem to have had an unexpected stroke of luck.

[ The Empress sounded almost cordial as she began, as though they were not trapped in a cave and she was instead offering a piece of cake, or something equally pleasant. ]

When we leave here, you don't have to be my prisoner.

Not the — I didn't know about the underground part. Someone wrecked a cargo ship here...

[ he mutters the last part to himself, again, not really considering it important given the more pressing situation at hand. he's still got that firefly-sized spark of hope that he can turn rey and bring her home. that would be worth 50 wrecked cargo ships. (preferably he'd get to find the ship too, but if it comes down to either-or, well.)

"you don't have to be my prisoner" puts some kindling next to that spark, even though — ]

Wasn't planning on being your prisoner. I know you better than that. [ did he? there was always something in between them. their own tempers, mostly. (finn should have been here.) ] If you could just — c'mon. You could change things. It doesn't have to be like this. There doesn't have to be a war.

[ Rey's eyebrows rose at the mention of the cargo ship and she tilted her head to the side, as though she were considering whether or not he was telling her the truth. To her, it seemed like an awfully big coincidence.

Keeping a bit of distance between them - it wasn't as if she needed to be close enough to him to go on either the defense or the offense - Rey continued to regard him as she stepped tidily across the ramshackle path that the shift in the architecture had left behind. ]

You're right, there doesn't have to be a war, I see that now.

[ She lifted her chin, eyeing him. ]

If only you and the rest of the Resistance saw that.

[ clomping after her, her final words make him clench his jaw. if only you and the rest of the resistance saw that. as if the resistance were the ones in the wrong by being like "nah son" to fascism, even if it was rey behind the wheel? (well, whatever was left of rey. ]

We do see that. And if you could see that too... you know, if the First Order is yours, you could dismantle it. Why is that so hard for you?

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