(backdated) day: 37

[exhuxperation]

[ Hello everyone, here's a gentle knock or nudge on your mental doors. It's as polite and crisp as the person behind it– Hux is never one to overlook formalities, regardless of the fact that everyone is linked in the brain. So once he's relatively certain he has most people's attention, he'll get more to the point. ]

( If I have interrupted your activities, I do apologize. However, I have something I would like to pass across to the rest of you should it be of interest.

Considering the growth of the Nest that we've experienced, it may benefit us to begin coordinating efforts and communication on a larger scale.

I realize this may seem redundant when taking the mindlink into account, but for those who are newer or those who do not have as much of a handle on their newfound powers, it could be helpful. Moreover, the progress we've made collectively on this mission could be pushed with more cohesive organization. )

[ Does it sound like he's practiced this? He probably has. Anyone who might be familiar with him would recognize the speechifying. ]

( All in all, I believe this group is rather talented and driven, just lacking on the communication aspect. If you've input on any of these points, I would be glad to hear them. )


[ ooc: Hux is essentially seeing if people want to share power descriptions so it makes it easier for other characters to tap people for missions! This is completely optional. He'll also be making notes and probably being nosy I mean checking in on broods re: temperature checks. Feel free to volunteer if you want dad Hux to bother your character about their feelings about the nest : ) ]

Comments

[batmotif]

[Bruce reaches out to her, trying to keep his disposition even keel, despite the bomb she just dropped.]

(How do you know this?)

[sensitively]

[ The pull of one of her Brood is strong, and Rey turns her mind to answer him as quickly as she can. ]

( Where I come from, he's responsible for the use of a superweapon that can destroy entire planets by turning them into pocket supernovas.

His First Order destroyed a system of five planets that housed the seat of the Galactic Republic government, all because they disagree with the Republic's ideology. He would have destroyed the system that housed the Resistance as well, if Resistance fighters hadn't attacked the base the superweapon was constructed on.

I was there, on the weapon base. I helped destroy it. It was where I was taken from as it was collapsing, immediately before I came to the Nest. )

[batmotif]

[To say that this casts a different sort of light on his conversation with Hux is an understatement. The argument that difficult decisions must be made during war will not settle well with Bruce, especially when she is basically describing a war crime, and an atrocious one at that.

He doesn't feel the same shock or betrayal as others might; he doesn't know this man that well to possess certain expectations. But there is a sense of stark disapproval, and perhaps a bit of borrowed vexation from his link with Rey.]

(And his side of the story?)

[What are Hux's excuses, he wonders? Though perhaps that is better aimed at the man himself, and there is the distinct feeling that no explanation will be satisfactory.]

[sensitively]

[ To be perfectly honest, that's the part she doesn't know of — what the First Order's reasonings are, how they could have possibly justified the killing of tens of billions for political machinations. If their stance was to overthrow the Senate and the Republic and set up a new government, they wouldn't win voluntary support elsewhere in the Galaxy by annihilating entire planets. ]

( ...Fear. ) [ it's the only explanation that makes sense, and the strongest emotion she could feel flitting through Kylo Ren's mind when she searched. ] ( They intend to rule by instilling fear. It's the only explanation for the First Order's actions, given that they can't possibly garner support for their cause otherwise.

They're a faction that superseded the former Empire, which reigned long before I was born. )

[batmotif]

[Fear. Bruce knows fear well, and the many ways in which it can be wielded. As a tool, as a weapon. As a way to force compliance, for good or for ill.

Naturally, this did not make it acceptable. If anything, it succeeds in doing the opposite.]

(And did the previous Empire rule similarly?)

[sensitively]

( I suppose they did. I wasn't born yet when they rose to power - all I know is from legends and old holovids I've seen on Jakku - and they reigned for the better part of three decades. I don't know if the First Order is made up of Imperial remnants, but it's likely. )

[ she muses silently for a moment, before adding: ] ( Fear is a powerful motivator. ) [ it's what drove her to survive day in and day out in a harsh wasteland, after all - there was the hope that her family would return, but day-to-day she feared starvation, succumbing to the elements, devastating loneliness. ]

[batmotif]

(And a dangerous one, too, if not wielded properly. A double-edged sword.)

[The talk about this First Order and their Imperial roots are undoubtedly complex, and Bruce lacks full knowledge of her universe's history and context to form any real opinion -- though thus far, first impressions and hearsay are not all that flattering at all, and it's difficult to not be judgmental.

Though fear and its uses takes a backseat to another question of Bruce's, which harkens back to their very first meeting, the day of their mutual arrival.]

(Is this person the presence you sought out, when you first arrived?)

[He'd be wrong, of course, but perhaps not that far off base.]

[sensitively]

( No. Hux isn't sensitive to the Force; I'd had no idea he was here until I ran into him. ) [ and she'd had no idea whom he actually was, until he'd told her. ]

( The one whose presence I felt was Kylo Ren - someone still affiliated with the First Order, but... ) [ her thoughts trail off momentarily, distracted: ] ( I'm not entirely certain now how much of a role he played in the Hosnian system's destruction. )

[batmotif]

(And you were injured from that encounter, weren't you?)

[That day she arrived is what he's referring to, again. Even if Bruce was not there, it was nigh impossible to hide such ferocity of emotions and pain from a broodmate. To say that there was bad blood between the two would likely be something of an understatement, he would gather.]

[sensitively]

[ There's the pull of the now-healed but scarred skin, the flare of pain that still lingers underneath from Ren's blade cauterizing her spine. ] ( ...Yes. )


[ Of the two, Hux and Ren, she's not entirely certain at this point of whom is more dangerous. ]

[batmotif]

[With her memory of the pain comes his own recognition of it, brought to the forefront. It's enough to make him frown -- and enough for Bruce to enter Batdad mode, too.]

(If you find yourself in a situation like that again, I don't want it to be alone. I don't know the exact details of the strife between yourself and some of the others here, but you should know that you have your broodmates at your back. Myself included.)