we just have a few questions.

[blacklisle]

The Interrogation Meme

Your crimes were unspeakable, your lies were innumerable, but finally you've been caught. They bring you in, sit you down, and chain you up. No matter what power you have, no matter how strong you are, you're not going anywhere, so get comfy.

It's going to be a long night.

Rules

1. Post with your character, canon, and any prefs. Note whether captor or captive.
2. Tag around to other characters.
3. Roll for an option.

RNG OPTIONS

1. Truth serum: You know this person isn't going to confess easily, but you've got a surprise for them. This serum ought to loosen their lips a little.
2. Torture: The old-fashioned way might work best for this particular subject. How about those thumbscrews?
3. Bargain: You've got something they really want, or really need. If they fess up, if they tell the truth of the matter, they'll get it.
4. Blackmail: So, remember that night about ten years ago...? You know something they don't want the rest of the world to know and you're going to use it.
5. Seduction: Just because they're tied to a chair doesn't mean you two can't have a little fun, right?

Comments

[hadthehighground]

Taking a spoon and his steaming pot by the handle, Ben casts Ezra a look before walking away. The man heading outside to a rocky ledge where he sits himself down and begins eating his dinner. Ignoring him might not make Ezra go away but he can still try.

Whatever he’s eating smells terrible, but Ben was clearly used to it as blew it off and stuck a spoonful in his mouth.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra does sigh, then, and drops to sit a few feet away. He notes the terrible food, but he's eaten literal trash, so he's not judging. Wishes Ben had better, because Obi-Wan Kenobi, deserves all good things, as far as Ezra's concerned, but he doesn't say anything.

In fact, he stays quiet while Ben is actually eating. Simply takes slow, measured breaths. Not really a full meditation, not even intentionally touching the Force at all, just trying to keep some sort of calm and patience, rather than giving into frustration and fidgeting.

[hadthehighground]

As Ezra is quiet, Ben is too, making a pointed effort to not look at him. Taking his leisurely time to simply eat his food in peace and contemplate the boy. How he knew anything about Maul was a mystery to Ben. That was a long time ago, long before Ezra was even born. It was not a pleasant thing to remember and makes him yearn to hear his master’s voice all the more.

The silence gives time for Ben’s agitation to die down a bit. Eventually finishing his meal he sets the pot aside and looks at Ezra again. “Why are you here? Have you come just to torment me?”

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Not that," Ezra says, immediate and fierce. "Never that." Then he hesitates and adds, reluctantly. "Not intentionally, not to be cruel."

Sometimes pain is inevitable, even when trying to be compassionate, like lancing a wound. But neither does he want to just dismiss the pain his presence may be causing. He can't tell, yet, whether he really should leave.

He grimaces and shifts, uncomfortable. "The simple answer is I wanted to see you. And I had sreasons to believe that - that would be...welcome." He smiles, faintly. "And right this minute, I'm too worried about you to feel good about just going, 'oh, my mistake'."

He's also not sure where else to go. Surely making his way to Lothal is out of the question. Ultimately he will bow to the guidance of the Force, but he'd honestly believed that he had been, and here he is.

[hadthehighground]

Again he goes quiet for several moments, his expression softening a little bit. He had been unsure if this was all a trick. Some sort of ruse to reveal who he was and lure him to his death. Yet this boy seems sincere.

“Why,” he then asks. “Why come looking for me? You should be hiding yourself. Here you will just draw attention.”

It was a small admission to who he was, a risk to be sure. But Ezra seemed to already know anyway.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"That's way more complicated," Ezra admits. "I'm not sure where to start."

He huffs a laugh. "I really had hoped you would just, uh, know certain things, and we could make decisions from there, with all that information, together."

He swallows hard. "I know Force sensitives interacting is always a risk. Please know that if danger came to...you-" To Luke. Or Leia, for that matter. "I'd do everything I could do draw it away. I-I'd rather die, then bring the Empire down on you."

[hadthehighground]

Ben can only look at him with visible confusion. Not just because of the vague answer, but also because he didn’t understand why he cared so much about him personally. It was… strange and foreign to him after all this time. Nobody really cared about him anymore, and he was fine with that, or at least he thought he was. He questioned if even his old master cared anymore, or perhaps if Yoda had just been wrong. Then this kid comes along wanting to connect and he’s just not sure what to make of it.

“I… don’t understand,” he finally admits.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"I know I'm being vague and that's confusing," Ezra says ruefully, and flashes a warm smile.

"But I get the sense that you don't mean the bits of my life story I'm dodging explaining. What about what I said made you more confused? I bet I could guess if we were both open to the Force, but-"

He spreads a hand and gives a half shrug. He likes to think he'd gotten pretty good at following his master's shifts in mood, the direction of his thoughts, if not the specifics. Ben is so closed off, trying to read his mood like that could be beyond rude, even if Ezra managed to pick anything up.

[hadthehighground]

Ben gives him the side eye when Ezra mentions reading him if they were both open to the Force. It was true he was very closed off, and if Ezra can tell, well that speaks of his abilities.

He shifts a bit uncomfortably at the question though. “I don’t understand why you care about a washed up old man.” He wasn’t the man he used to be, that much is clear. He wasn’t even a Jedi anymore. If that was all he was looking for, a great Jedi master, he should have left in disappointment by now. Instead Ezra was rather persistent and he didn’t know why.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra's gut reaction is to deny that Ben is that old, or washed up, but he swallows that impulse down. Right this minute, that would just send Ben into withdrawing more, he thinks.

"Your family would care," he says, softly, entreating. "If you were...home, but for some reason you couldn't go out into the galaxy, or sit on the Counsel, or any of that. They would still care, wouldn't they?"

[hadthehighground]

He might not be that old but he sure felt it, and he felt washed up. Ben was just a guy trying to get through life. There was nothing great about him. That was the image he had made for himself and settled into it. It was safer that way.

Scoffing at the mention of family, he got up from his seat to walk back inside. “What family,” he mutters. “In case you haven’t gotten the memo, they’re all dead. What they would think hardly matters.” With that he goes about cleaning up his pot and utensil.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra springs to his feet, and shoots back with a little snap in voice, "Not of us. And it matters to me."

[hadthehighground]

“Why, Ezra Bridger. Why does it matter to you?”

This said in an even and calm voice as he scrubs the pot. He doesn’t remember this boy so he would hardly call him family. He might be a Jedi, but he couldn’t say he was close with most of them. As far as he was concerned all of his friends and family were gone.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Honestly, I'd be concerned about anyone living-" He looks around, unhappily. "Like this."

And that's true. He can't help everyone. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't matter. He's a limited being. He has to pick his priorities.

"Which is...not exactly what I expected." He crosses his arms. "I came to see you because I wouldn't be who I am today, if Obi-Wan Kenobi had never existed. Starting with that warning message. And then learning from students. And so many other things, big and small, that have been part of my life. And I know you don't know what I'm talking about, wouldn't believe all of it if I tried to explain, but all of it matters to me."

His jaw works and his stares down at the sandy floor. "Right down to a cup of water given to a stranger, when you have so little."

[hadthehighground]

Again he listens quietly, choosing to ignore the fact that his way of living was being questioned. It was good enough. He didn’t need much and he was still alive wasn’t he?

The mention of his real name made him stiffen and he looked up, staring at the cave wall with a sigh. “A very Jedi thing to say,” he admits. “And while that’s very touching, the man in that message is not the same one you’re talking to. He’s gone too.”

[ezra_of_lothal]

"So?" Ezra shrugs, arms still crossed.

"My first master - he'd have been the first to tell you he wasn't a Jedi for years. A padawan, alone? Of course he had to become someone else. None of this is news to me."

He gnaws on his lower lip before pressing on. "I'm not that kid who stole a holocron anymore, either. We can't stop change, but doesn't take away the importance of deciding whether to hold on or let go."

[hadthehighground]

“Part of being a Jedi is learning to let go.” He said this as he put his pot away. Walking over to a lamp to turn it on as the light was fading. The twin suns hanging low in the sky and would soon be gone. The temperature already starting to drop.

Taking the lamp he walked further into the cave. Coming to a large empty space with the exception of a makeshift bed on a sloping floor.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Yes," he glances up, with a faint smile. There is a glimmer of Master Kenobi, he thinks to himself. Maybe just a glimmer, but real.

"But that's just one part, isn't it? There's learning to distinguish between what we want to hold onto or let go. And what we need to. The difference between all those choices. To try to see them clearly."

[hadthehighground]

“Nothing is quite so clear anymore,” he says quietly, sitting down the makeshift bed and setting the lamp aside. He then works on taking off his boots. Grimacing as he pulled a foot free and taking a moment to rub the soreness from it. Doing the same to the other food shortly after.

“All there is, is darkness.”

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra closes his eyes, takes a slow, shaky, breath in and lets it out. "No, Ben. The galaxy is more shadowed than it once was, yes. You're in pain, and drawn into yourself. But that is not all there is."

[hadthehighground]

“What would you know about that,” he says skeptically. He couldn’t see it, perhaps even refused to see it. The light of his life, everything that gave him purpose and hope, was taken from him. Worst of all it was his own fault.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Hmm. I'm getting out my cloak," he warns, before reaching for his small pack and going digging through it."

"I know it was harder for me to see before I learned I was connected to everything. And I know it was there, all along, even when I was hiding and more guarded. All the little acts of kindness, and love, and courage, that people do every day, to make things bearable. The basis for any hope at all for anything to be better."

[hadthehighground]

Ben doesn’t seem to much care what Ezra us doing and doesn’t react much as he goes digging through his pack. He meanwhile pulls off his poncho and holds it away from his bed to shake the sand from it.

Ezra said some nice words and once upon a time he believed such things. However there was no denying the cloak of darkness that had settled over him. Making it harder to see the things he was talking about. Tatooine is also a harsh place with equally harsh people or those who were down on their luck much like he was. He fit in quite well.

[ezra_of_lothal]

The lack of response is admittedly not encouraging. He wraps himself in his cloak, and backs up the cave walls, in a position to see by the entrance and Ben's bed, before he folds on the ground. He quiet a while, before the circles back to questions.

"Why this cave? I can tell you've been here a while, but I think I put more effort into finding someplace well out of the elements and making it comfortable, by the time I was nine."

[hadthehighground]

“It’s because nobody would think to live here that I decided to.”

It was secluded, out of the way, but still close enough that he could watch Luke. Only the Lars really knew that he was out here.

Ezra seemed to be making himself comfortable at least. He wouldn’t recommend leaving after dark anyway. Though the boy would have to find something to do with himself when he left for work in the morning.