A/N: Contrast this with Asleep on the Job.
From Happily Ever After, "Dirty Laundry":
Poe tilted his head. "So you acknowledge that what you were doing in the lab was attunement?"
"I do not!" The outrage didn't feel real.
"I don't think you're telling the truth." Poe was certain of it.
Hux scoffed again and said nothing.
"Let me ask you something," Poe said. "In that lab you worked in – did anyone else ever calibrate those crystals?"
"It was a very delicate operation!" Again with the false outrage.
"Uh-huh. One thing you do when you're lying is you stop answering the question. Like you said – a lie by omission is less dishonorable."
Hux sighed melodramatically. "You and your father are both insufferable. The only possible reason to marry into this family is to spare the rest of the galaxy from having to deal with you further." Poe grinned at him.
Hux continued in a more normal tone, "But for your information, there were two others who were able to master the calibration process. Not that this contradicts your theory, though, as they were assigned to my team by Snoke specifically for that purpose. He told me he anticipated that they'd prove more skilled than my former colleagues. He was correct."
"I have been able to successfully calibrate only one of the mega-crystals for the main firing sequence," Hux said in one of his rare personal meetings with Leader Snoke. He'd had other business on the Supremacy and had dropped in mainly to see the new throne room. That, and he didn't know how to initiate mental contact. It had been more than a week since Snoke had been in his head.
Hux continued, "The … I have had other engineers attempt multiple times on the other two. I have tried them myself. The lattices will not align. Or if I get them that way, they shift on the other two crystals. They seem to have some manner of polarity that effects one another."
"They can only be attuned to one person at a time." Snoke looked less displeased than Hux expected at the news of the setback. "Have you tried …" Snoke blinked at him a few times, his mouth puckering. Into Hux's mind came a concept of blending and intermingling, a stage that came before dominance and possession. You had to understand before you could control. Maybe he meant assimilation.
"Did I, um, did I have the engineers touch the crystals with bare skin?" Hux asked, trying to translate the concept and why Snoke would insert it into the conversation at this point. It was rare that Snoke stumbled on getting his point across, but Hux recalled Cheskar telling him how Snoke had used telepathy for the same subject, years ago.
"Yes."
"Ah. No. After the matter with my chief engineer, I am reluctant to allow that." He was adamantly against it as a matter of fact, but also 'reluctant' to tell Snoke he wouldn't obey if ordered. What happened to Cheskar would happen to no one else on his watch, regardless of how his people looked at him now. He could feel Snoke sliding through his mind. There was no discomfort in the touch this time. Hux hated that, in a way, because it meant the pain all the other times had been unnecessary. Or just cruel. He didn't hide this thought from Snoke, whose lack of reaction was a confirmation itself.
A moment later, the mental presence ended and Snoke slumped over in his throne-like seat. He looked dead. Hux sighed and raised his brows with a 'really' expression. He'd seen this before, often enough to simply settle himself into parade rest and wait patiently. The guards did not shift, as though they knew Hux posed no danger to their master even while he was presumably defenseless. Hux kept his eyes fixed on Snoke the whole while, knowing the return of awareness could come at any time.
Some minutes later, Snoke's somnolent breathing shifted and Hux drew slightly more to attention. He focused his thoughts: I am waiting. We were discussing my lack of enthusiasm for allowing my people to be driven insane by magic rocks.
Snoke swallowed and worked his tongue around his mouth in a leisurely fashion. "That is wise," Snoke said finally. "Find the electrician whom the crystals chose. Have him perform the operation. He will prove successful. He may touch them without harm."
"Sir?" Hux blinked at him. "I mean, Leader, um …? The electrician?" Were they still discussing the same subject?
"Basingi."
The name was vaguely familiar. Hux placed it eventually – a technician who'd been installing a splitter or some other device in the main channel when a kyber crystal as long as a finger fell out of the raw mineral of the wall and into his hand. Or so he said. He'd been delighted and amused, telling people freely about it. Hux had confiscated the stone when he found out and mandated training for all about the dangers of freely touching the things. At the time, he'd been more worried about Snoke than whatever psychic poison the crystals could give off.
Hux said, "He … he wouldn't know how." The calibration process was not merely a matter of spinning a few dials.
"Train him."
"Yes," Hux said, bewildered. "I will."
"You will need another." Snoke leaned forward, looking at his various red-robed guards appraisingly. The pair closest to him straightened, but then Snoke slouched back. "Take my shuttle pilot."
"Your pilot?" Hux supposed he really ought to just act like this all made perfect sense.
"The one from second shift, Onti. I can spare her. The other two can cover for her while I find another."
"I am to have a shuttle pilot and an electrician calibrate the remaining two kyber crystals for Starkiller Base's main firing assembly." He didn't ask it as a question.
Snoke's relaxed shrug was mocking. He made a dismissive gesture with one clawed hand. "Go."