1/20/2
Ellie is unreservedly pleased to join Rey and Kylo in what is, hopefully, the first of their, How-To-Be-People-In-The-Political-Realm lessons.
Hopefully.
As she heads into their private room, where Rey and Kylo are already waiting for her, it occurs to her that she's seen men face execution looking less perturbed.
"This really isn't going to hurt," she says. Then she holds her hands out. "See, no ruler."and Rey glance at each other, dumbfounded because not only do neither of them know what a ruler is, they also have no idea why she'd have one.
Ellie shakes her head, and sits at their dining table. Rey and Kylo join her. "Back, a million years ago, when I was a school girl, there were flat, plexi-plast strips with marks on them used to measure small distances or draw straight lines. They were also good for whacking misbehaving little girls across the fingers."
"Your teacher hit you?" Rey asks. There have been times she's wanted to smack one of her students, but she's never done it.
Ellie half smiles. "Not very often. And generally not very hard. It was mostly to help focus attention, rather than a way to enforce behavior through pain. Master Loonia, on the other hand, would raise welts with his ruler, but I wasn't in his class."
Kylo and Rey both wince.
C8 comes in a heartbeat later with a gently rattling tray. It's, as close as can be had on the Supremacy to a proper, Imperial high tea. After all, if they're going to do this, they're going to do it in style.
Ellie smiles at them as they both look at the four layer tray, with pastries, fruits, little sandwiches, and on the bottom level, a teapot, three cups, tiny plates, and a collection of condiments.
"Thank you, C8," Ellie replies. It's the first time she's ever thanked a droid for anything, but unlike her students here, she is good at this, so when she noticed that Rey thanks serving droids, that immediately joined her arsenal of manners.
"You're welcome, Lady Kinear. Anything else?" he asks Kylo.
Kylo shakes his head. Then pauses, and says, "My next appointment is in two and a half hours, a ten minute warning would be nice."
"Done, sir."
Then C8 leaves Kylo, Rey, and Ellie, along with high tea, and a lesson, or maybe planning session.
Ellie eyes the teapot, and then Kylo. "Hightest ranking host serves, and this is one of the few parties where I'm not it. So…" she gestures to Kylo and the tea pot.
Kylo looks at the tea pot, and looks at Rey, and then sees Ellie shake her head. "Today it's you, Kylo. We'll talk about when and where it'll be appropriate for Rey to pour when you are present, but not today. To start off, though it's considered an immense honor to be served, by hand, by someone on your level."
"What is this?" Rey asks. She's never been to a meal with rules this formal, or what to her, looks like a pyramid of desserts.
"This," Ellie says, "is Imperial, and before that, Galactic High-Tea. People of a certain political level would have breakfast upon waking, luncheon between eleven and noon, high tea at four, supper at nine, and if you're really with the game, nightcap at midnight."
"That's a lot of meals," Rey says, trying to imagine eating that often.
"Why my mother was never home for meals is making more sense," Kylo says.
Ellie nods at that. "The New Repbulic didn't quite play by those rules. They tended to think things like high tea were a lavish waste. Still, meals were certainly a tool in the political arsenal more than a way to fuel the body. In many social situations, food is the equivalent of lubricating oil. It helps everything glide easily against each other. With the exception of a high banquet, social meals tend to be small, and there are that many of them, so that you have several opportunities per day to have small, private meetings while doing something genuinely pleasurable."
Kylo's eyeing the tea cup, which feels stupidly tiny in his big hands.
"To start this off, the tea is already brewed. If we get to the point where you're looking to really impress, we'll bring out the actual leaves, and you'll pour the water over them. For right now, we're starting on the basic level. Leave room for milk, sugar, cream, or whatever your guest might want to put into it. Say a centimeter and a half from the top."
He shrugs and pours.
"In the world I grew up in, these sets would be made out of the finest and most expensive minerals or porcelain the family could afford. The number of snacks, the rarity of the tea, or coffee if you were really looking to lavish luxuries on someone, were all ways to show your guest your status, and how much you valued them."
The set on Kylo's table appears to be common black plasteel, but… Again, there's no such thing as a proper Imperial High-Tea, not on the Supremacy. Meanwhile, there is a lesson to this set, so Ellie's set, made of a platinum-silver alloy, and handed down through her family for the last nine generations, is tucked away on her ship.
She takes her tea from Kylo, puts a block of sugar in, and adds a wedge of citronen. Rey, who's never had tea, especially not like this, follows Ellie's lead. Kylo takes his plain. It's hot, he registers the temperature of the liquid more than a flavor, but after a few seconds he notices there's some sort of herbal, cinnamon-y thing going on there. It's not bad. He prefers coffee.
Ellie takes a sip, and then says, "Fifty years ago, you serving, by yourself, from this set, would have sent your guest into a panic. Care to guess why?"
Kylo and Rey both look at the set.
"It's cheap?" Rey finally says, after a moment. She might not know tea sets, but she does know materials. If she'd found this and brought it to Plutt, it'd have been worth a few drops of water at most, so…
"Exactly. When your leader values you, when you are pleasing to him, he won't serve you with cheap goods." Ellie takes another sip, looks at Kylo, who stares at her, blinks a bit, and then gets it.
"Right," he grabs one of the little plates.
"Good, top down, use the little tongs."
"Okay… Uh…"
"One of the rabbit comfit sandwiches," Ellie says, but there are five kinds of little sandwiches up there, and Kylo has no idea which is which by sight.
"The little one with the yellowish bread and the brown middle."
He puts it on her plate, and looks back at the tower of treats.
"You eat your way down, and once the first round has been served, guest serve themselves, though it's polite to offer to grab something for everyone else when you go for another of your own."
He wiggles the tongs toward the top level, and Rey shrugs. She also doesn't know what's up there. He plops one of each on her plate, and does the same for himself.
"We don't have to eat all of them if we don't like them, right?" Rey asks.
"Not here. And you're better off trying everything because variations on the theme of this will show up often. That said, if you're a guest, unless you will literally throw it up, eat whatever it is you're offered, or learn to hide the fact you aren't eating it."
Rey looks confused, and Kylo's remembering some very unsuccessful attempts at hiding food under his plate as a small child.
"We'll get into that lesson before you're actually a guest at one of these things. Now, assuming we could locate a somewhat decent tea set, what would serving tea today mean?"
Again, neither Kylo nor Rey really want to hazard a guess, but… Ellie doesn't look like she's about to hop in and rescue them by answering, so…
"I'm actually attempting to live up to the Vader-fetish they whisper about?" Kylo tries.
Ellie sniggers at that. "Well, I suppose that's one possible read on the subject, though to the best of my knowledge Lord Vader never presided over tea, or anything else that involved eating in public. Rey?"
Rey eyes the tea, eyes Ellie, and it'd be so easy, she could just read the feel of it off of her… And then she gets that's part of the point of this. She's supposed to read Ellie.
"It's… about signaling that we're out of the war years. That… the galaxy is ready to move back, or forward, I guess, to a time where people can do things like sit down and have tea. It's… prosperity. It's… showing off that we're… genteel…" she lifted that word right out of Ellie's mind and isn't sure what it means. "The New Republic didn't do things like this because they thought it was a lavish waste, and looked too Imperial." There's another layer in there. "This is a palace… Or supposed to be one… And palaces have things like pretty meals to set people at ease and provide them comfort."
Ellie's smiling at her. "Exactly. And, of course, there's more. Always more." She pauses to sip her tea before saying, "The art of politics is fairly simple, at least at first blush. All you need to do is figure out what you want, and what the people around you want, and then use their wants to get your wants. And you two," she flashes Rey and Kylo a knowing look, "have, shall we say, an advantage when it comes to figuring out what the people around you want." Ellie smiles. "So use it. Get people together, get them comfortable and relaxed," she takes a bite of her sandwich, and a sip of tea, "and learn.
"Most people act like politics is a complicated and obscure mire of hints and nuance. And it is, if you can't read minds. But, since you two can, the game suddenly shifts, and all you've got to do is figure out how to manipulate the wants of the people around you to get what you want.
"And once you know what the people around you want, manipulating them is easy."
Ellie can see both of them are at least mildly horrified by her putting it that bluntly. She sighs. "Alderaan… That's your image, isn't it? Perfect, peaceful, rational, reasonable people working together in mutual accord for a greater good?"
That's not exactly Kylo's image, but it's close. He can't quite see it through his mother's rose-tinted glasses, mostly because it's her view of it, and he knows not to trust it. And Rey, who didn't grow up with a fairy tale version of a world lost, still has that ideal of it, because, even though Kylo doesn't trust the image, it's still his image of it.
Ellie sighs. "Child, if your grandmothers were here… I knew Padme. Not well, but enough to chat on occasion. And I knew of Breha. Queen of Alderaan. Everyone knew of her. Breha would tell you mutual accord and the greater good are not real. She knew they were goals, something to be worked toward, not obtained. Padme didn't know that, but she learned, and learning it broke her heart, I think. It certainly killed her. So, just delete those concepts from your mind. They do not exist. There is no Force-ordained perfect system. I'd assume, you two, of all people would know that, but…"
Kylo rolls his eyes. "I do." And Rey nods along, too. They've both gotten the beyond shitty end of the Force stick in the past.
"So first and foremost, what do you want? That's where this begins. You can be as lofty and fair as you like at this point, but keep it firmly in mind, this is what you want. There is no God behind you pushing and pulling you in the right direction. Or if there is, it's the same God that rose up Snoke and Palaptine, or at least allowed them to rise, so keep that in mind. For all practical purposes, all there is is your own, personal sense of right and wrong, your own definition of justice, your own tolerance for pain, and what you're personally willing to do, and who you're personally willing to sacrifice, to get it. That's it. No more, no less, and this will fly or fall entirely on the strength of your own will.
"That said, most of the people around you can't read minds, which means they're watching your every move, nuance, lifted eyebrow, the cut of your clothing, everything and anything for any hint of what you're doing." She touches her sandwich. "Does rabbit comfit over jam make a statement? Maybe? There'll be people trying to decide if it does.
"So, for you two, you're learning to speak the language of power more as a way to manage the message you send to those around you, than to pick up the messages they're sending to you.
"For example, Kylo, no one has missed that you have no guards. This tells them two things. One: you are very confident in your ability to defend yourself and your home. Two: you don't, not really, care about anything around you." Ellie sits back as she says that, and then says, "Now, tell me, is that an accurate description of the situation?"
Kylo blinks. "I… absolutely can defend myself against pretty much any and everything that could be coming my way." Then he glances at Rey, and she shakes her head.
"I am not being trailed by a horde of guards. I don't need them."
"The only person I won't live without can take care of herself, and if need be I can be at her side in less than a heartbeat."
Ellie takes note of Kylo's phrasing on that, and then nods. "But they don't know that. And I assume you prefer it that way." Both of them nod. "And, if I understand correctly, you do have another home, hidden away, that no one knows the exact location of, and almost no one has been to."
They nod.
Ellie smiles a bit. "So, you do understand the need to guard that which is precious. That said, the people around you see the lack of guards, especially on Rey, and think you may be reckless. You storming in, personally, to lead the attack on Qualee, cemented that idea. Whether you are reckless or not, you can use the fact that they see you that way to your advantage. By shaping the message you send, you also shape the ways they'll try to interact with you."
Rey watches her, and takes a nibble of her sandwich. Ellie only takes tiny bites, so she takes little ones, too. It's yummy, lightly sweet and braced with some sort of acid. She thinks she's got one of the jam ones. Then she says, "And you've got a message you're thinking we should try to send?"
"Since we talked about Amidala at the First Year party… I have an idea, and Pat thinks it's something we can capitalize on… that you two are ideally set to fill, should you want to do so. Though, I can certainly understand why you may decide not to."
That gets an intrigued look from both Kylo and Rey.
"People have shapes, stories in their minds, narratives, and if you can take advantage of them, you can gently push them into directions that might be more to your liking than where they would otherwise go." Ellie takes one more sip of her tea. "Over the course of the Last Night and the First Day parties, one thing Pat and I noticed is that there's a narrative we can… use… to our benefit.
"Do you remember me saying that people like the idea of a God or Force-Ordained ruler, someone touched by the hand of the divine and given dominion over them?"
Kylo and Rey nod; they remember. They also remember Ellie saying, less than twenty minutes ago, that that was also not a thing that existed in the real world.
"People do like that. In addition to that, many, many people have a story in their minds. A tale of a handsome prince, and his beautiful lady, and the many trials and tribulations they go through in order to win each other, but in the end, they do, and they get married, and they rule justly, to the benefit of all they rule, and everyone lives happily ever after."
Kylo immediately sees where this is going, because he did have nannies who told him those stories. He even liked them, as a child. Probably because, in several cases those stories were supposed to be about his Grandparents: Breha and Bail Organa.
Rey's getting the idea, too. She didn't have those stories, not growing up, because she didn't grow up in a world of stories, but she understands what Ellie's saying.
"You want us to be… The Handsome Prince and his Lady?" Kylo asks. He gets the idea, but he's never even come close to thinking about applying it to him… them.
She looks to Kylo. "You're pretty enough for the job." Kylo looks skeptical about that, and Ellie brushes it away. "You outed yourself, so you are, and the galaxy knows it, a literal prince. Of Alderaan. And given how the New Republic spent thirty years covering the galaxy with pro-Alderaan propaganda, just about everyone thinks it was practically Heaven, unjustly destroyed by those monsters in the Empire, so many people automatically associate it with justice and honor, and good government. You have the birthright for this. You have the ideal birthright for this. Pat and I could have spent years setting this up, and we could not have come up with a better background for this plan if we tried. And believe me, we did."
She looks to Rey. "Again, you're more than pretty enough for it. Normally, it's the Prince who does the rescuing in these stories, but… If we let it out that you were part of the Resistance, and he was the First Order, and we shape it as an epic romance, finding each other on the battlefield or something like that, pulling together, entwined by destiny, you bringing him to the light, him bringing you dark, the fall of the First Order and the Jedi, and bringing about something new, The Order of the Maji…
"If we shape it right, people will flock to you, just to be near that story. To wear our colors and be part of the romance of a love story so powerful it changed the entire galaxy. They'll write stories and songs and holovids about it. You'll be celebrities."
And that's where Ellie stops, to let those ideas seep in, and to her credit she does give it time, as Kylo and Rey sit there, next to each other, contemplating the idea of being… famous.
The first flush of contemplating is both of them just looking at her, somewhat stunned expressions on their faces.
That then settles down into what Ellie would consider an is this possible? sort of expression, this one aimed at each other as they contemplate the idea further.
And they do contemplate. Long enough to munch through several of the tiny sandwiches, and a few of the… Rey's not sure what they are, savory pastries that get rubbed with creams and jams, on the level below them.
It's Rey who says it, and Kylo's grateful for that, because he doesn't feel like he can. Though it's clear that Ellie's surprised to see Rey's the one who voices the question.
"How would we… do that?"
Ellie looks around… "I'm not sure if we'd start here, because, of course, this is the real world, and we are on a budget, but it's the thing that's glaringly obvious to me, because we're sitting in the middle of it." She gestures to the room around them, and the Supremacy at large. "Kylo, it's all black. You look like you asked for a torture dungeon, not the hub of a new political regime. Even the Emperor, who wasn't exactly subtle when it came to décor schemes, didn't live in an all black room on and all black ship with an all black wardrobe."
Kylo does lift an arm, showing off that Jon's latest version of his command blacks does in fact contain some gray on the sleeve.
Ellie loudly thinks smartass at him, before saying, "The fantasy prince and princess live in a palace. A place of beauty, and learning, art, music. It's smack dab in the middle of the most prosperous, beautiful city to ever be built. Now, there's not much we can do to make the Supremacy look, at least on the outside, beautiful and nonthreatening. The inside is a different story."
"Jon and I talk about building palaces. And, we've got dreadnoughts in process. New ships to scale down some, and built to be beautiful."
"Good. That's a good start, but you're what… ten years out on them?"
"Four and a quarter."
And while that's better than Ellie was thinking, that's also not now. "Much better, but something has to happen with any parts of the Supremacy you intend to work/entertain in."
"What kind of something?" Rey asks.
Ellie thinks about it for a moment. "I could probably describe all day and not really get the idea across. I know he's at least seen some examples of what an attractive, elegant, functional sort of place looks like. I don't know if you have.
"I have my own ship, and free time. If you want to take the lesson further, how about we go visit some palaces?"
"How?" Rey asks. "We don't just… go, right?"
Ellie smiles at her. "That's exactly what you do. You are the Lady Ren of the Order, Mistress Rey of the Maji, and I'm not exactly yesterday's waste. If we request a visit, we will be offered the height of hospitality." She shifts focus to Kylo. "You have to have people you want to get to know better… Places that could use a visit from the queen of the Order…"
Off the top of his head, he's got nothing, but… "Wait. New Alderaan. We're delivering a non-aggression pact to them. Rey and you delivering it… That would… look good right?"
Ellie smirks a bit. "Sending your Queen to visit your Mother's people, who are a matriarchy famous for peace, with the first draft of a binding peace agreement in her hands? Yes, Kylo, that looks good. Would you like to do that, Rey?"
Rey's still wrapping her head around the idea of this. "Just… Go to New Alderaan? Just the two of us?"
"Normally we'd have some people to tend to us, and a few guards, but we can likely get away with the two of us, and assuming he's a Grand Marshal by the time we leave, Jon, or better yet, General Threepio, who I believe has been there before on more than one occasion…"
"Threepio," Kylo says, understanding what they're doing here. "You're going to absolutely convince them that I AM the heir to their throne, and then we're just going to… leave them be?"
Ellie smiles a little. "Well, you do happen to have a policy in place encouraging anyone who would wish to join you to do so. If they want Prince Ben of Alderaan," Kylo winces a bit at that, and Ellie pointedly ignores it, "they know where to find him, and how to join his service. You have a program for acquiring planets. If they decide taking advantage of it at some future point would be to their benefit, who are you to tell them 'no?'"
She's not wrong about that, and if New Alderaan ever does decide to move into the sway of the Order, he won't tell them no.
"So, go, look, see, get an idea of what palaces look like, and… then what?" Kylo asks.
"Well, is there an epic romance hiding in there somewhere? Do we have a Prince and Princess to stick in a palace if we build one? Pat tells me the two of you killed Snoke together. Jon tells me she's the one who put that scar on your face. You've told Mirina that he kidnapped you… So… I have the feeling that there's a story we can…" she gestures elegantly, looking pointedly at the two of them, "polish a bit, and make people want to get close to."
Both Rey and Kylo glance at each other.
"How?" Rey says. "Not how do we polish it… How do we spread it around? More than five or ten people at a time."
"Good question. Lots of people will want to know more about you, so… We have interviewers and channels that play news, if you were to talk to them other people would watch those things, and get to know more about you."
Again, they both look at each other. Just sitting around talking about themselves is uncomfortable and somewhat off-putting.
Ellie continues on. "People love a great love story. It draws them in, makes them want to be part of the drama, makes them see you as people, so… We can work with this."
Kylo's rubbing his lips together. He's not sure if the two of them qualify as a 'great romance.' At least, he doesn't remember some of their experiences ever popping up in the stories he saw as a child. His sarcasm comes up to go with, "And do we leave out the part where I blow up her home planet, or she cuts my face in half…"
Ellie's unfazed by that. "That's going to be up to you. I think the real question is: do you want to create a version of the past that's engaging and optimistic, preferably with a sense of great passion and purpose, and then use it, and when you're in public, be it, as a way to encourage people into feeling like joining you is a moral imperative?"
Rey and Kylo glance at each other, and Ellie continues. "Let's take Jakku. Everyone who is paying attention knows that you blew Jakku to pieces. Fewer than ten know why. The official story is that Hux used it as a test of concept for the City Killers, and in that it was out of the way, didn't have too many people on it, and had housed a decent number of Resistance members over the years, made for a good target.
"That is not an unreasonable story. It may even be a good one. It's absolutely a believable one. And as long as where you come from, Rey, never gets out, that story will hold."
Rey and Kylo can both feel the unspoken: How long do you think it will hold?
Rey shrugs. "Maybe ten people know I'm from Jakku."
"And are you certain they can keep the secret?"
She winces. "Tasha Spiner?"
"It'll be out in a matter of years. She doesn't talk freely, spreading secrets around willy-nilly, but there will be a situation where it will be to her advantage to pass that on. That's just the nature of the game. The only way to neuter the value of a secret is to spill it. So, you know it will come out, which means now you get to sit down and figure out how best to shape the story to your liking. What provides you with the greatest benefit?"
Neither of them are entirely sure about that.
"How would you shape it?" Rey asks.
"Let me make sure I understand the truth, at least the way you do. Tell me the story…"
They look at each other, and Rey begins, "Shortly before the battle of Crait, we noticed that we could sense/see each other through the Force."
"From light years away. Snoke claimed he was bridging our minds to each other, but neither of us believes that, and the bridge didn't falter when I killed him… so… If he set it up, he set it up better than any Force spell before or since," Kylo adds.
He holds her hand, giving her a little squeeze, letting her have the next bit. "Because the Force has a sense of humor, it thought that linking us to each other when he was somewhat naked would be fun." Ellie smirks a bit at that. "The issue is, though, at that point, I wasn't exactly fond of, or comfortable with, somewhat naked men." She bites her lip, but just says it, banishing some of the power the words hold over her. "I was raped, several times, over the years, when I lived on Jakku. My parents sold me there, proceeded to run off, and then drink themselves to death, and the man who bought me cared for nothing other than the junk I could bring in. He offered no protection, and when I got old enough to be interesting to some of the men, they took advantage."
Ellie blinks and nods.
"I didn't tell him that story. Likely wouldn't have, not for a long time, but, our minds are bridged, so when the Force flashes us to each other, and he's butt naked in the refresher, shaving, and he's getting annoyed because I keep asking him to put clothing on, and he doesn't want me to think he's repulsive…"
"It wasn't quite that. I could live with you not liking the things I'd done. I didn't like a lot of the things I'd done over the years, too. But you were comfortable with me when I was dressed, but not naked, and… I didn't think there was any shot we were going anywhere like where we are now, but… I didn't want my body to be monstrous to you."
Rey's expression indicates she doesn't think that's much of a distinction. "He snapped out something like: 'It's just skin; you've got it, too,'"
He glances to Ellie to explain. "Because I was tired, and annoyed, still drowning in dark, and it was one of the few moments of the day when I got to be something like a human, and that bothered you…"
"And I didn't answer, but the memories came streaking back, and he felt them."
"And immediately put on a shirt."
"Only a shirt."
"You only asked me to put on a shirt! I didn't know how much you could see."
"All of it."
"Well, then you should have asked me to put on some pants or something."
"Once you had a shirt on, there was something I could focus on other than kilometers of white skin."
Ellie is continuing to happily smirk away at this exchange. She's sure if she can get an interviewer with them, the public will eat this up.
Kylo half inclines his head, and then takes over on the story, "She flashed back out, I was alone in my refresher, and being the calm, reasonable person I was a few weeks after the battle of Crait, I got Hux and some engineers together, had them wire battering ram cannons onto bombers, and blew the planet into chunks, shooting every ship that tried to leave down in the process."
Rey hadn't known that part of it. "No one got off?"
He shakes his head. "No one." There still some savage satisfaction in his voice as he says that. Then he looks to Ellie. "So, how do you spin that? I went into a completely inappropriate homicidal rage because a girl I had spoken to maybe half a dozen times was abused a decade before I met her."
Rey's also curious to see Ellie's take on the matter.
Ellie meanwhile studies both of them. She doesn't curse, a lot, but when she does it carries that much extra emphasis. "Well, I'd set it up like this: Do not fuck" she enunciates it clear and sharp, "with Master Ren, or anything he cares about. I'd keep two things in play, no regrets. Everything you have ever done is something you intended to do and it worked out exactly how you wanted it to. Regrets are for your private life, and your memoirs. And two: you are the ultra-protector and you will utterly destroy anything or one that has ever done you or yours wrong.
"There's a substantial portion of the population that is small, terrified, lonely, and craves the idea that somehow, someone will care enough about them to rage for them. We are selling a fantasyversion of the two of you, and every year billions of stories get sold about great romances where one of the two of them goes on a stupidly over-protective binge of murder and mayhem to avenge or protect the other one. As a fantasy, people adore the idea of it. As long as you don't then go out and do more of it, using it as a way to build the image of an eternal, undying, passionate, attached love will work just fine.
"And, if we set this up, people who are 'realists' will decide that this is you two being 'romantic' and 'prettying' up the image of the great Kylo-Rey relationship, making it more dramatic, and that, in reality, you were likely just looking for a good spot for a weapons test, and you're probably lying about being from Jakku anyway." Ellie glances to Rey, "Do you know your family? At all?"
Rey shakes her head.
"And you haven't searched yourself in the register?"
"No."
"Do it. Information that exists, that you don't control, is a problem. As soon as it goes wide that you are an orphan, your 'parents,' siblings, cousins, all manner of long-lost family will come out of the ethers. In the case of 'parents' some of them are going to be heartbroken people who had a tiny, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl stolen from them, and they desperately want her to have grown-up strong and pretty, married a prince, and now helps to rule the largest military in the galaxy. That's the best possible outcome for these people, and they will come in drovesto try and prove you are theirs."
Rey sighs. She wants that, too. Just the idea of it lights her up. Somewhere, there are people who weren't useless drunks, who loved their little girl, and some idiots took her and sold her on a backwater in the middle of nowhere.
Kylo squeezes her hand, then kisses it, feeling how much she hopes there are some people out there who have been looking for their baby girl for decades now.
Ellie can see it, too, and gently says, "And if the registers turns up nothing, you're going to have to decide what you want to do with the people who are begging the gods, the Force, and the Universe that you are theirs. Because they are going to come. And so are the status seekers, the con artists, the scum of the universe. Some of them will just be happy to talk to the local tattle sheet, and claim whatever they can about you. I'm sure Kylo's aware of the fact that every year for the last decade there have been stories about "I'm Kylo Ren's birth mother…"
Kylo's staring at her blankly.
"No?" Ellie's genuinely shocked by that.
He shakes his head. "No." He swallows. "People have been claiming to be my family for years?"
"Not as much before you became the Supreme Leader, but after, quite a bit."
He blinks at that. "I didn't know that."
"Ah… Well… the Leia Organa's son story is circling, so that's starting to quell the other rumors. Though I'm sure a lot of stories about who your father might be are going to start up soon."
"My mother's husband?" Kylo asks, voice dry.
Ellie offers him a lop-sided smile. "Honey, your mother never publically claimed Kylo Ren as hers. Not that I know of. The only legal child she ever had was Ben Solo. He vanished from the public eye more than twenty years ago. He's been gone for so long, no one knows if you're him or not. On top of that, your father wasn't exactly tied at the hip to your mother. If memory serves, he dropped off the scanners more than a decade ago, and even before that, sightings of him were rare. Honestly, without you saying it, I didn't know they were married."
That makes Kylo blink, because as best he can tell if a thing can be known, Ellie Kinear would have known it.
"Part of it is that you don't exactly look much like either of them. If you really look, and you also really looked at Organa and Solo, you can see a bit of it, more in how you move than in your actual physical features, but… I'm certain stories of the bastard love child of Senator Organa and whomever else in the New Republic with black hair and dark eyes will be flying through the galaxy soon. She had a lot of friends over the years and many close confidants. And, unless you wish to publicly reclaim the name of Ben Organa-Solo, which our Alderaan trip should start to do, they aren't going to stop."
"And is this where you tell me that retaking that name will be complicated, too? Beyond looking good for Alderaan."
"See, you're getting the hang of this," Ellie says with a smirk while Rey pets Kylo. "At the most basic level, Han Solo is, I believe, still wanted in over 200 systems. And I have the feeling that he still owes money to an army of people, who will likely be interested in trying their luck with you."
"And I suppose if I grab them, toss them in my brig, and hold them for bounty hunters, my 'neutral space initiative' will suffer?" Kylo says, voice dry.
"It's likely people will be somewhat less interested in coming to do business with you. Of course, if you have a find them, grab them, hold them and release to the highest bidder policy, that can get you into an entirely different line of work. Which I understand is lucrative as well."
"I have a feeling The Supremacy can offer more value by letting anyone come here to deal in whatever it is they like." If Kylo's right about this, there are more scoundrels than scoundrel catchers out there. And scoundrels need a place to do business.
Ellie sips her tea. "I suppose if you just grab the first few who are stupid enough to try you for settling Han Solo's debts, word will spread fairly quickly that when the last song is done, all debts are settled."
Rey glances to Kylo and thinks: Or we could actually settle them, assuming we can afford them, and it buys Chewie his freedom.
Assuming Chewie says they actually owe those people. If it gets out we're paying off Han Solo's debts, everyone in the galaxy is going to show up claiming he owes them.
Rey smirks. And about half of them will be telling the truth.
Kylo snorts a quick laugh.
Ellie shakes her head. "Don't do that in public. It's rude to have private conversations in front of another person. So, either keep your thoughts in place until later, or school your faces so others don't know you're mentally chatting."
"We're working on that," Rey says.
"Work faster," Ellie replies. She nibbles a cookie. "That probably brings us to the next big issue. Everyone knows that Kylo is some sort of Force user. Between the fact that you have, apparently, in public," she sounds exasperated at this, "told people you can read minds, to the battle on Qualee Prime, where people watched you stop blaster bolts, to your pulling out chairs with the Force trick, they know you can use the Force.
"They don't know that about you," she says to Rey. "They do know, or will, about the Maji. Speaking of things an interview or two could help spread… But since what you've said about it doesn't confirm that it require Force skills, or if, like the Church of the Force, it's open to everyone, they are less certain about you. So, this is your opportunity to decide how much of your own skill set you want to let shine."
"And you would suggest?" Rey says.
"Absolutely do not let people know you read minds. Keep that secret to your grave." She looks to Kylo, "I would have told you to do that, too, and if you have the opportunity to hedge that story, do so. Most people don't know that's a Force skill period, so shut up about it, and use it as subtly as you can."
"Hedge it how?" Kylo asks.
"Suggest you can read feelings, or only if you really concentrate, or anything you can think of to make it clear that you cannot eavesdrop on someone's thoughts like you're sitting next to them in a restaurant while they're having a conversation…" It's clear from the look on Ellie's face, she's curious as to what Kylo actually can do in that regard.
"I can feel strong emotions. And I can't read minds or hear thoughts. It's… very much not sitting next to someone in a restaurant."
Rey keeps her face clear and thinks to him liar.
He also keeps his face straight, and thinks back, I'm hedging.
Ellie rolls her eyes. "Honey, don't even try it on me. You are not a good enough liar to pull it off, even if you weren't having a little chat with Rey about it." Both of them are looking irked at her. "Okay, homework assignment. Sit in front of a mirror and watchcarefully what you do with your faces when you talk to each other. Then watch what you do when you're not having a conversation. Yes, both of you did a good job of not looking like you were having a conversation, but both of your faces went flat, which was too far of a correction in the opposite direction."
That gets more sighing.
"Also, if you know any good liars, and for the record that is absolutely Pat and I, listen, feel, and watch what we do. We can have lessons where both of us will intentionally lie to you, and I know both of you can feel the lie, but I want you to watch how we tell it. People who can catch one of us in a lie are very few and very far between, and likely either have some Force skills, or are professionals in interrogation, politics, trial law, or gambling."
"Mirina Frakes can tell when you lie, can't she?" Kylo asks.
That stops Ellie short. Her expression shifts, and for a second they catch her this is valuable information face. "Interesting question there. Why do you ask?"
"She's mildly Force sensitive. All unconscious, all untrained, but I'm sure people have an easy time chatting with her, and Jon says a good chunk of what she does is giving people what they want, or if what they want is a terrible idea, making them want something good. That's extremely low level Force coercion."
Ellie grins at that. "Oh, she'll be… interested, to hear that."
"Good interested or bad interested?" Kylo asks.
"Well, you could go have a chat with her about that yourself. And… I would suggest that as long as she is here on your ship—"
"You mean the foreseeable future?" Kylo asks. "She and Jon have been around to talk about this."
Ellie nods.
Rey can feel what Ellie isn't saying. "Status isn't the only thing Mirina has on offer, is it?"
"Only if you're not smart enough to attempt to make an ally of her."
"We talked," Kylo says. "She might be warming up to me, because of what I can do for Jon. But she hates me because of what she thinks I did to her husband."
Ellie gives him a non-flustered look. "Change her mind. Or take advantage of the fact that you," she's talking to Rey, "and her have a clean slate. You have enemies, Kylo, nothing can be done about that. You do not, Rey, at least not ones that matter. There will be times when sending Rey in will be the better course. This may be one of them. Still, if you can, get Mirina Frakes on your side. She's got an unparalleled eye for the details, and is better at getting people to open up and talk about things they shouldn't than anyone else."
"Like I said, she's warming up to me because of what I can likely do for Jon, or set him up for. We'd likely get along, other than the fact that she holds me responsible for the death of her husband."
Ellie's utterly un-fazed by that. "You are responsible for the deaths of billions of people, Kylo. You need to be able to figure out how to get people to look past that and work with you anyway."
"I didn't blow up the Hosnian system!"
Ellie sighs at that. "It really doesn't matter. Get this firmly in your head: you will be blamed for any bad thing the First Order, the Empire, the Rebellion, and the Resistance ever did. The fact that you are somehow the literal heir to both side of the war that's been going on for the last seventy years means that there are trillions of people who will hold you personally accountable for something someone did that was entirely outside of your power, and possibly occurred before you were born.
"Learn to use it."
"How?" Kylo sounds exasperated at that.
"That's why we're here. And that's us wrapping back around to our handsome prince and his lovely lady. You are the heir of all the problems in the galaxy, Kylo. More or less. And you're nobody, from nowhere, completely outside the drama, Rey. And one day, somehow, you two found each other, and you rescued him from the dark/light/power/corruption… fill in the blank however you like, and together, the two of you are breaking with the past, shattering it, and starting fresh and new. That's the promise of the Order, a fresh start to anyone who wants it, and you two, personally will be the symbol of that. The idea that love frees us from our bonds, gives us the strength to break away from what's dominated us, and then gives us hope to conceptualize a better life, and the will to go get it. That's the fantasy we're going to write up and sell to the entire galaxy, if you two want to claim it.
"And the best way to sell that fantasy, to pick it up and work it for all it's worth, is the biggest, brightest, most lavish wedding anyone's ever seen.
"Spruce this place up, make it glitter, and both of you, inside of it, sparkling away, glowing and lovey the way you were at the Last Night dinner. That gives you plenty of reason to tell the story, more reason to show where the story leads, and it will cement the idea of this as a glittering palace in space, centered on the most fabulous love story ever, where people will come to work with each other, and reach peace and accord. You'll be the living embodiment of conflict turning to love turning to a flourishing society with a vibrant future. We can build this story, and we can sell it, and if you are willing to put yourselves on display like this, we can cement the power of the Order with a minimum of bloodshed."
Ellie knows that's a lot to take in, so she takes one more sip of her tea, then then says, "And now I want both of you to get out of here, and do something that you, personally, find enjoyable. Don't think about this, don't mull on, don't talk about it. Just go do something fun, with each other. And tomorrow, start thinking and talking. Tonight, have a good dinner, go see a show, walk the promenade, read a fun novel, make love, whatever it is you enjoy, and then tomorrow, have a good think and a chat."
That's the first time either of them has ever been ordered to have a good time. But Ellie's not quite done. "Except for the Alderaan thing. Don't think about that. We're going to do that. It's not up for debate, because that's a really good idea. And I'm thinking, that in the not wildly distant future, Rey and I are going to spend a bit of time touring Naboo, too. We'll think of some official reason to go there that doesn't have anything to do with Padme Amidala, but we absolutely will go.
"As for the rest of it, think about."
Then Ellie grins, and gestures to the door of Kylo's rooms. "Go out there, do something fun, and let them see you doing something fun."