Event Log: Predator vs. Prey

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Predator vs Prey event
Where: All over the city
When: March 13th-March 21st
Warnings: None

It all starts with an explosion, because Rage is excellent at managing her anger. But an explosion isn't enough - she hasn't worked out all her feeling yet. Not until the city itself has gotten caught up in her anger at Fear for being unable to save Delight. And yeah, that means you.

So now you're a predator (Rage) or prey (Fear). You want to hunt, or you're being hunted. Maybe you were defenseless before, or maybe you're the sort who no one could be afraid of... but it's different now, because the gods are passing on their blessings to you. All the better to catch and kill, or run and hide.

What will you do? Try to resist the urge? Good luck with that. Who would want to resist, anyway, when it feels so right to give in? Hunt someone down like a cat after a mouse, or flee like a deer before wolves. Maybe you can find someone to help you, whether that means hunting in packs or looking for safety in numbers. Who knows, maybe you'll even make a few new friends while trying to kill your old ones.

► This log covers March 13th-March 21st.
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you get caught by a predator or have things turned on you by your prey, please let us know here.

Comments

[forcer]

[ Knowing the Traitor was here was one thing, but seeing him truly brought forth the anger Kylo always keeps simmering below the surface. There are plenty of things that cause him to put a fist through a wall on a good day, but nothing has brought as much pain as the Traitor, the girl, finding and eliminating his uncle... Basically everything involving his family and the Resistance. He hasn't laid eyes on him since he cut him down in the snow on Starkiller Base, and all of the feelings - the anger, the hate, the pain, the absolute rage - come rushing back the moment he sees the man. And, stars, it feels so good to see him running, scared, and very much unprotected.

A perfect opportunity to pounce on unsuspecting prey.

There's no good way to sneak up on him, though, as there's no good places to sneak around and Kylo can't exactly soften his footfall. He doesn't have a blaster to pick him up and igniting his lightsaber would certainly immediately draw his attention.

So, he uses the Force.

With an outstretched arm, he grabs Finn by the neck and draws him across the open space between them until his hand is firmly around the Traitor's neck. ]

I've been waiting for this. I'll be sure to draw it out; I want you to suffer as much as one possibly can before death.

[bythehand]

[ Cheater, cheater, Force-yeeter, to quote a very wise sage. Finn, of course, is not of a mindset to actually be thinking something like that. He's more taken by an immediate and familiar thought process, the intensity of which he hasn't hasn't properly experienced in a very long time. Since those first few days after getting away from the First Order, arriving in Riverview and constantly waiting for a fleet to touch down.

That is to say, Finn is instantly, viscerally sure that this is probably where he dies. And while dying in itself is the kind of thing he was raised to view as a necessary means to an end in some circumstances, let alone being less theoretically final in a city like this one, his broad hope has been to only do it once, and to have a lot more direct control over the circumstances. Doing it for something worthwhile to him, knowingly taking a risk.

Something that's not this. And Rey and Poe are gonna be really upset about it which is?? Maybe even worse. (It's literally not worse.) Possibly the best actual motivation he has to try to get scrappy and put running fast to good use.

It's a lot harder to drum up his usual shade of anger reserved for Kylo Ren right now, even though he knows he has it. He goes back to the well and it's mostly cold fear, which is arguably not helped by that thing where he's being choked.

Finn gets a tight hold on Kylo's forearm with both hands, which he doesn't expect to amount to much of a grip-breaker with Force powers in play. His plan of action from there so far is to just bring his knee up really hard and hope he hits anything with the capacity to get hurt by a knee. He can't believe this is the worst day of his life so far. ]

[forcer]

[ Seeing the Traitor up close again brings back so many negative emotions, so much anger and hatred. He thought he left Finn for dead in the snow on Starkiller Base, he was almost sure of it... And then he saw him in Poe's mind, saw everything that had taken place in their galaxy after the destruction of Starkiller, and he had never wanted to kill somebody more in his life than he did at that second. Poe, Finn, the girl - he wants all three of them.

He tightens his grip on Finn's throat, holding him up at arms length... until a knee gets him in the stomach, causing him to lose his grip (and his breath) and drop the traitor. What a piece of shit. ]

You--

[ Without hesitation, Kylo stomps his right foot and ignites his lightsaber, twirling it in his right hand as he approaches Finn. But ending his life now, with just the lightsaber would be too easy - the Traitor deserves far worse for the pain and suffering he's put Kylo Ren and the rest of the First Order through. Hell, he and Hux even discussed killing the trio together and how satisfying it would be to watch them suffer.

He sends Finn flying, back into a tree. A little bit of deja vu, but this time the girl isn't going to get in Kylo's way. ]

[bythehand]

[ So much for making an opening for himself. Who needs all their ribs intact, anyway? Finn makes an impact with the tree that is probably as satisfying for Kylo as it is unfortunate to experience. Hitting the ground after that is a fresh experience in "what the hell just happened?" He got dropped and now there's a tree.

This would be a nice time to have a weapon. There's no outrunning that reach. No outgunning, probably. Finn would feel a little better is all.

He loses the benefit of quick reaction time to trying to get his breath back, to pushing himself back up when his body is definitely telling him that now is the time to be on the ground for a while-- when a lifetime of training caps on the concept that a soldier who can't get back up isn't worth retrieving, it provides a fresh new layer of fear in times like these. Knowing better doesn't help. It's rare that it does. It would look cooler if getting back up pre-breath catching weren't so heavily tree reliant. ]

I think you need a new hobby.

[ Throwing people around is a garbage one. When in doubt, refuse to die quietly. ]

[forcer]

Thanks, but I'm quite content with this one.

[ Walking towards Finn with lightsaber activated, Kylo's mind is focused on one thing and one thing only: the Traitor has to die. It's a shame Hux isn't here to share this with him, but he's not going to let him get away again. Not this time. And, for once, he's alone. There is nobody around to stop him - no girl, no Dameron, no fucking Wookiee. Finn is alone, struggling to stand back up against the tree.

And that's when Kylo starts picking up his pace, closing the distance between the two, lightsaber raised and ready to strike Finn down. But he doesn't want to kill him yet, just injure him enough to bring him back down to his knees. Enough to bring more pain than he's ever felt, make him cry out and suffer.

It almost brings a smile to Kylo's face.

Almost. ]

[bythehand]

[ When Finn tried this with a lightsaber the one time, he was equally sure he was probably done for. But he still misses the lightsaber, if only because it was a good way to block... the other lightsaber. It probably also helped around that particular time that Kylo had been previously shot for ease of survival chances. And Rey was there. In Riverview, it helped that Poe was there.

Basically the same exact realizations from the other end are happening here. As much as they can. There's a lot more work involved in standing on his own two legs in the post-tree-hitting economy than one might have expected. And then he's putting some remaining brain power into an ambitious (yet still directionally challenged) hypothetical: how hard does he think he'd be able to headbutt Kylo Ren, right in the nose and teeth? To save himself a hop.

Finn genuinely expects Kylo to cut out the middleman and go right to the murder. The shortest route between point A and point B. He's wrong. Dying became point C. He got about 6 seconds of facetime with lightsaber-based injuries on Starkiller, and he has it on his own authority that it burns. Even shallow strikes burn, and they feel like they sink in and keep burning, and that's giving the ol' prey brain a lot to work with right here and now.

It's a straightforward and efficient strike. Shallow in a measured way that Finn wouldn't think to associate with Kylo Ren, in a way that's actually legitimately terrifying on some level. A very fast chain of events from standing to being back on the ground and also his leg really hurts. Kylo doesn't get a scream, but a shout, there definitely is.

Obviously the best strategic choice in lieu of headbutting is to make his best lunge at Kylo's knees. Does he have a real plan if he actually gets there? No, not really. It's more wondering what might be able to keep him non-skewered for the extra two seconds. ]

[forcer]

[ Finn going for the knees wasn't exactly what Kylo expected, though he wasn't really sure what to expect at this point. He knew the Traitor was strong, that much was apparent on Starkiller, and he knew that he would do go to lengths to save his friends thanks to Poe's stolen memories. He'd been hoping the hit against the tree would've been enough to knock him down, giving Kylo time to cross the distance between the two and strike with his lightsaber.

So, when Finn catches one of his legs in his attempt to save himself, it catches Kylo off guard and lands him on his ass, knocking the breath from him for a second.

But, a boot to Finn's middle and the hilt of the lightsaber to the side of his head should give Kylo the out he needs to scramble back to his feet and reignite the lightsaber. ]

You piece of shit.

[ Once on his feet, he's coming at Finn again, lightsaber ignited and slowly searing the flesh into his shoulder. ]

[bythehand]

[ Excuse you, Kylo. That's piece of rebel shit.

Finn feels like shit, though, actually, so maybe Kylo just saved him the time finding the right word. He definitely hasn't scraped his faculties back together by the time Kylo is up and stalking over again-- he's feeling vaguely sick and trying to blink his vision back into full clarity, and also his head hurts. That makes "get off the ground" round two more of a hard mode challenge.

So he's doing his best over there right about up to the point where his shoulder starts burning. That's around the time when he figures out that he dropped the focus ball, because he managed to miss an actual giant coming right back at him.

It is, point for point, exactly as bad as Finn remembers it being. Worse, actually, because remembering that something hurt more than anything else he'd ever been hurt by is one thing, and having it happen again is another. I don't have an icon for screaming, but Finn doesn't have enough chill to get slowly burnt by a lightsaber and not yell.

In light of not being able to grab a laser sword by the laser without losing his hands, Finn falls to a backup strategy: kicking. It starts more as a way of trying to put off the inevitable, a graceless backwards scramble. Once his back hits (dun dun dun) tree, though, it's more about desperately trying to put up any resistance that he can.

There are some pretty hefty chunks of debris around, he thinks; if he gets a chance to lurch in that general direction, he can try to bring half a brick to the party. Something. Anything. A non-searing opportunity that he can grasp at.

Knowing he's pretty much zeroing in on dying within the next ten minutes and that it won't stick doesn't make him less inclined to grasp at those straws. It's gonna be bad enough explaining without Poe and Rey thinking he didn't really try to avoid it first. ]

[forcer]

[ Finn is a piece of shit. Period.

Kylo isn't about to acknowledge the rebel part of it, especially because all that does is make him think of his mother and father and, stars, that's never a fun time. Imagine how much he hated it when Poe called out to Leia. Not a good time for Poe... Or Kylo.

Instead, he's going to focus on killing Finn. Much better, much more enjoyable.

The kicking doesn't do anything but cause more pain for Finn in the long run because it forces Kylo to pull his lightsaber up through Finn's shoulder and out, making the injury worse than had he just jabbed it in and left it there. And the resistance he's putting up angers Kylo more than had Finn just laid there and begged for him to stop. Kylo takes another swing at Finn, aiming for the head this time. ]

[bythehand]

[ Of note: RIP, jacket shoulder. No amount of Poe's crappy sewing could have fortified you against what just happened. RIP shoulder in general while we're at it. That's his arm of preference. Not good.

There was going to be a longer description of exactly how much that sucks for Finn, but it got lost in an accidental notepad closing. The important thing is, everyone here can picture exactly how much it sucks. Especially because lightsabers just go right ahead and cauterize that shit.

Finn rolls his first nat20 of this encounter in managing not to get his head chopped off. It's graceless by all definitions of gracelessness. It is, in fact, more of a really bad lurch than a legit dodge. But he doesn't get his head chopped off. And while he's in the lurching neighborhood, he figures he might as well try to scramble for one or two of those aforementioned big hunks of rock. This is literally the best plan he has. Try not to get chopped up and get to the makeshift weapons. ]

[forcer]

[ Spinning on his heel in an attempt to stop Finn, Kylo nearly loses his footing. His eyes go to where Finn is headed and the big hunks of rock aren't really something Kylo wants Finn getting his hands on considering he has a huge advantage right now over the Traitor. So, he'll use the best way he knows how to stop Finn: the Force.

He stops him from moving once he reaches the rocks, firmly holding him in place. ]

It's unfair of me to do this by myself as General Hux wanted to be the one to end your life, but I can't let the opportunity pass me by.

[ Finn will start to feel it, something he's never felt before. It's foreign, it hurts, and it goes against everything he wants and yet he's powerless to stop it. Kylo takes this opportunity to search Finn's mind, looking for any details Poe may have left out, events he didn't experience himself. He wants to know exactly what happened that he's yet to experience. ]

[bythehand]

[ Hm. This is Bad. To explain it as one of the greatest understatements made in human history, at least.

Finn is silent at first, wild-eyed, trying to process a sensation that he still wouldn't be able to describe even now that he's experiencing it. Thorough and brutal enough, inexorable enough, that the First Order would be pleased to have anybody on board willing to do this. It's no wonder.

The silence doesn't last. There's no trick to lessening the intensity of it, no pushing it or anything else aside to think about later, and so Finn builds to screaming; builds to a raw throat and a wet face that he only barely registers.

He didn't realize how long it's been since he felt really, genuinely powerless. Not just angry or frustrated or shaken, but powerless.

And the feeling lingers in jumbled thoughts, in flashes of memory that go rapidfire and out of order. It's Cassian lying in the snow smiling, and 2 AM coffee with Chyler, Poe looking annoyed and covered in glitter while Finn throws his head back and laughs-- setting a collision course the battering ram cannon and closing his eyes, the way that Rey's face softened when he said "we came back for you"- John Sheppard leaning back haphazardly in his chair, boots propped up on his desk while he fiddles with a toy ship- Solo shoving a blaster at him and telling him that women always find out the truth-

He's smoothing a blanket over Rose on the Falcon, equal parts sharp concern and soft gratitude, and Poe is saying "Finn, I'm gonna call you Finn, is that alright," and he's never had someone ask him that before-- Slip reaching up towards his face and everything sharply changing, the jarring brutality of his first deployment, the cold dread of thinking there's something wrong with him, he's broken- meeting Rey halfway on Crait and throwing his arms around her, the failed plan to disable the Supremacy's tracker, holding the binary beacon out to Poe like it means everything--

And it is everything, it's everything. Everything that Kylo Ren is looking for, he finds.

It doesn't stop.

Any active cursory attempt to shut down or push back, at the same success level of anyone who isn't equipped to actually do it (aka no success at all), that doesn't last, either. It grinds down to almost involuntary reflex, a muscle spasm in prey that's being held down by the throat.

Hux unceremoniously putting him down point-blank with a blaster would have been better. Regular human torture is sounding appealing by comparison. ]

[volitaunt]

[ Poe doesn't exactly realize he's screaming as he charges Kylo Ren. It's part terror, part blind rage, and if it gets the ghoul's attention off of Finn so much the better.

Not that he's thinking much about distractions. What he's thinking about is launching himself into a tackle as he grabs at the wrist holding Kylo's lightsaber, furious scream turning into words. ]

Leave him the fuck alone!

[ Possibly Poe should have led with shooting at Kylo Ren. He does have a gun. But that would have required .5 more seconds of thought and who has the patience for that. ]