#secretsandshadows

There was music wisping up from the edge of the base; haunting, wistful music and the most beautiful singing voice Rey had ever heard. It drew her in, sent her past the latest band of pilgrims arrived to join the Resistance’s cause, past a returning scout or six, past an incoming supply train and then-

Then she saw her; the singer, the artisan, just as beautifully bedecked and presented as her voice implied she would be. She fairly shimmered in the dim light, all blues and golds as she plucked at her instrument and sang like she was the only person in the galaxy. Rey couldn’t imagine having such a craft herself, or having the confidence this woman had to share it so openly. 

So as not to disturb her, the young not-Jedi knelt down nearby to listen, swaying gently and with closed eyes as the story the song wove  engulfed her; made her  imagination run wild. She didn’t feel at all the other woman’s eyes on her; didn’t notice that she was being watched until the song eased to a close and she blinked herself out of what had almost become a bit of a meditative state for her. Rey’s cheeks flamed under the visitor’s keen, inquisitive gaze.

‘I...I’m sorry if I disturbed you somehow’ she managed, half way to her feet already. ‘...I’ve never known a skill  like yours before.’

__

Very few people saw the Knights of Ren without their masks. Even fewer would know them in any way outside of their work. Mayako was a rare exception. She was an excellent entertainer, and he couldn’t help but be reminded of Areun, the love he’d lost so long ago.

The reprieve was bliss to them both. 

* 𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙽𝙴𝚈 𝙻𝚈𝚁𝙸𝙲𝚂 𝚁𝙿 𝙼𝙴𝙼𝙴. - Accepting

Such a philosophical offering, and one that slipped right between her ribs too, wasn’t quite what Rey had expected when she’d brought the visiting artisan some refreshments as the camp’s temperatures rose. Theirs was a jungle world - crest and troughs of heat were inevitable - but that didn’t mean she’d leave the woman in all her silks and finery to suffer. It was crushed ice and juice and philosophy for them both. And then those words had landed and…they turned Rey silent and introspective for a good half-minute.

FN-2437 lifted when another person approached his quarantine. How long had he been in here? He wasn’t sure but the trooper wasn’t marking the days either. He never had a reason to mark the days. Time was a concept he was struggling with more or less since everything started happening. Sometimes it was difficult just to stay grounded in the present reality.

He looked the other over and turned to face them. Someone he didn’t know asking him what his fears were. He stared down for a long moment and tried to decide what was another fear. He knew one that gripped at his heart and threatened his chest. It was the whispers that kept him up at night. The voice that told him what he could do, what he should do.

“I’m frightened...” He paused and thought about how it might actually sound out loud. Despite what it would or wouldn’t give away about his situation, it didn’t change where he was int he present moment. It also didn’t lessen or increase his chance of being let out one moment before he was meant to be. “Of what I’m capable of doing.” He confessed not as a posture of power but of fear that he could run.

A well thought out plan and he could have fled and that’s what scared him the most. It frightened him that whatever was happening to him was going to drive him to flee. It wasn’t what he wanted, it was never something that he wanted. The empire was his home and it always would be.

There was no other place, no other sense of belonging.

@secretsandshadows​:  “ if you can’t be happy, at least you can be drunk. ” - disney sentence meme

Truth Telling Meme - Accepting

Rey looked around surreptitiously, then edged a little closer to the curious artisan. ‘You mustn’t tell a soul’ she confided quietly. ‘But I have tripped up a certain difficult man of my immediate acquaintance more than once.’ 

It was Dameron she was speaking of; he of  endless rebukes; endless questioning of her being bound up in what he derisively called Force Stuff instead of being on the battle field.