bridgescribble | we just have a few questions.

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we just have a few questions.

The Interrogation Meme

A bare room, a single chair, a naked lightbulb.

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

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

RNG OPTIONS

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.
Torture: The old-fashioned way might work best for this particular subject. How about those thumbscrews?
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.
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.
Seduction: Just because they're tied to a chair doesn't mean you two can't have a little fun, right?

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Ben has a long time to think as he rides his Eopie into town, ties her up in a stall, then takes the transport to the work sight. Like always he is quiet and keeps to himself, so no one notices any change in his demeanor. The act of cutting up neat has become mechanical and he can do it on autopilot as he goes into deep contemplation. It’s not quite meditation but close.

He searches his thoughts, his memories, his feelings. At first there is nothing, but as he lets the force in, the memories begin to trickle as well. Voices, faces, the sounds of lightsabers clashing as his knife chops through a block of meat. The trickle becomes a stream and then a torrent. Ben gasps as it all comes flooding back, dropping his knife and staring vacantly.

His pause disrupts the line and someone begins to shout, though it’s only white noise in the background as his brain practically reboots itself. Then someone is grabbing his shoulder and yelling in his face. Effectively pulling him out of his stupor and making him wince. “S-sorry,” he stammers before managing to get back on task.

Able to slog through the rest of the day, he quietly slices off a sliver of meat and tucks it away when no one is looking. Though it’s a little bigger this time. His mind still trying to process the sudden block of memories that hadn’t been there before.

Making his way back to the cave, he walks in to see Ezra practicing. He can’t help but stand there and stare in silence. Unsure of what to say, and not BBC wanting to interrupt him.

In many circumstances, Ezra would have picked up on more of that through the day. But as it is, he'd locked down their connection as much as possible, so all he's gotten is a vague sense of thoughts churning, almost like the crackle of water running over a glacier.

And well, that all makes sense to him. When Obi-wan is unbalanced, going over a thought he's snagging on over and over is what he does, in Ezra's experience. A little concerning, but not urgently alarming.

When Ben comes back, he finishes the sequence he is in the middle of, before he pauses and turns, his expression morphing into bright and pleased. "Hey." And then more tentatively, realizing Ben looks even more shell shocked than he did this morning, "How was your day?"

Overly analytical is a good way to describe him. Ben has always been that way for sure. He’s a thinker, planner, a strategizer. Always trying to figure out the best way to approach a problem. Sometimes that served him well, and other times it didn’t.

He must have looked like he felt in that moment. Because Ezra’s bright demeanor quickly turns to one of concern. When asked that question he hesitates, his mouth opening in silence for a split second before he speak.

“Very… illuminating,” he admits. He swallows hard, his eyes looking away for a moment but are then glinting a little as he looks back.

“Ezra I… I’m so sorry.”

And now he's alarmed. "What?" He takes a couple of swift steps toward Ben, but then hesitates again, not wanting to crowd the man. "For what? Illuminating how?"

What in the Force does Ben think he needs to apologize for?

Ben closes the rest of the distance between them and pulls Ezra into a tight hug. “I remember… I remember it all.”

"Oh. Oh." Once that really registers, he's hugging back just as tightly.

"Then...please don't hold onto feeling bad about not remembering immediately. I knew coming here was - I knew there weren't any guarantees."

Pulling back enough to look at Ezra directly, there was still sorrow and pain in Ben’s eyes.

“I don’t think I wanted to remember,” he admitted softly. “I never expected you would show up like this.”

Not wanting to remember - Ezra's not sure how to take that. He has to resist the urge to glance around the austere loneliness of the cave, while he reminds himself to try not to take it personally.

He clears his throat. "I'm, uh. I'm not sure that I could have, without my history with the vergence on Lothal. And I meant that I said, about deciding things together."

It wasn’t personal, it all had been just another thing that was taken from him. Practically another life, one whose memories were easier to suppress and allowed to fade away. There were other things he wished he could forget too, but those were not so easy to banish. Though Ben realizes what he said might be taken the wrong way. His face softening as he placed his hand on Ezra’s cheek.

“I’m glad you came,” he tells him. It was a gift that he never thought he could have. “But things have changed. I have changed.”

He nods vigorously. "You've been out here a long time."

Then he takes a deep breath. "I know you know..how things were for me, before Kanan found me. I don't think I've ever talked about-" Another breath. "My parents weren't dead, you know. Not until I was 15. But I had to tell believe that they were. I just...I had to."

Listening quietly, Ben nods slowly, his hand gently squeezing Ezra’s shoulder. “I understand. You were a child. There was nothing else you could have done.” His voice full of sympathy and sorrow for Ezra.

“I… thought Anakin was dead, until today. Now that I remember, I’m not sure which is easier. Believing him to be dead, or knowing that he’s out there and what he has become.”

Hmmm. Yes, he'd been a child, but that hadn't really been his point. But as Ben continues, he realizes maybe some of what he was trying to get at did come through.

"Alive means choices. For better...and for worse," he replies, carefully. "Sometimes hope and despair are two side of a credit chip. And where it lands can depend on the moment."

What Ben had been trying to say is that Ezra was a child and thus had little choice in the matter. But in his case, he knows better, he is able to do something about it. He had made choices he deeply wished he hadn’t made, that things had turned out differently. What Ezra does say though strikes a chord and he nods.

“Yes, you are right,” he admits while pulling away. Looking a bit distant as he starts to go about his routine again and making dinner. “I can’t say I’m proud of many of the decisions I’ve made or how I’ve handled circumstances. But sometimes we simply do the best we can.”

He was pretty sure he knew what Ezra was getting at. Though it was hard and painful, he was trying to acknowledge it.

Edited 2023-06-24 23:40 (UTC)

Ezra lets him go as soon as he starts pulling away, and goes to his bag to pull out a ration pack out of his dwindling supplies.

"You've survived," he says softly, as he settles on a rock and starts peeling apart packaging. "Kanan spent years doing odd jobs, doing a lot of drinking, before he could bear to touch the Force. That's how he survived until he could even begin to be ready to teach me."

“Surviving is about all I’ve done,” Ben says. He goes quiet as he listens to Ezra talk about Kanan. Hearing that wrenches his heart a bit, because he could certainly relate.

“I can certainly understand that.” He was doing much the same minus the drinking, though Ben has done a little if that here and there. Alcohol was certainly easier to come by here than water.

Glancing back at Ezra he frowned a bit as he saw the ration bars. “There’s no need for that. I’ve already planned to make enough for two.”

"Ok," Ezra replies, although he sounds dubious. It's less the food itself, and more that Ben pretty clearly doesn't have much of a margin to be generous with. "That'll work for tonight, I guess. I do have enough to feed myself for a few days."

“As long as you’re staying with me you won’t eat those,” Ben insists. Those rations were better saved for later. He just won’t tell Ezra how he gets the meat. Which he pulls out, chops up, and puts into the boiling stew.

Ben might not have much but sharing with someone who is important to him is also important to him.

"Ok, got it," he agrees. Saving the shelf stable stuff does make sense, so he packs it back away. And he's certainly no stranger to scraping together sustenance of dubious origins.

Still, if he's here for long, he'll have to contribute somehow. "I'm not sure if I can compete with the Jawas in the scavenging business, here," he mulls, only half joking. Thankfully, he's picked up a lot of skills since his street rat days, so in theory at least, he has options.

Yeah well just because Ezra has stolen before doesn’t mean Ben is proud of it. He hated it actually, but he needed to do it to survive. Though it would probably come out eventually one way or another if Ezra was sticking around for awhile.

“Probably not. Tomorrow I can take you into Anchorhead if you like.” Ezra could scope the place out and see if there was anything that caught his interest. It would at least be something for him to do while Ben was at work.

He nods. "Yeah, that's a place to start. I passed...around it mostly. Haven't given anyone on planet a name for me, yet."

He's quiet a moment, mulling over logistics and other practicalities. "You are going by Ben, right? Kenobi, or something else?"

“Ben, yes.” He says it solemnly but with enough conviction. He no longer calls himself Obi-Wan. That name is dead to him. “Kenobi. It’s a common enough name.”

“You would be wise to think of a different name for yourself.”

"Well." He tils his head thoughtfully. "I guess the next question is whether we want to hold out any connection between us at all. And if yes, than what."

That draws a long thoughtful pause from Ben. The stirring of the stew making him look busy as he considered Ezra’s words.

“I don’t think anyone would be convinced if we claimed to be brothers.”

He was approximately a decade older since Ezra last saw him.

Ezra laughs. "Well, no. Nephew, maybe. Younger cousin. Cousin can be nice and vague, cover a lot of degrees of kinship."

“Hmmm, maybe too vague. You would have to come up with a good story for why a handsome young man is staying with his worn out old cousin.”

There was some jest in his voice but it was true.

He wouldn’t mind calling Ezra his son, but then they looked nothing alike.

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ezra_of_lothal - 2023-06-28 14:51 (UTC) - Expand

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