(thank you all for the kind words! Once again, this is my first time ever posting my writing anywhere so all of the encouragement is greatly appreaciated! Here's the second installment. In which hux is very good at what he does, Ren is surprisingly, also good at what he does. They eat dinner, and do not quite get to the dancing bit)
It was, by all accounts, a classy event, the anniversary banquet of the date of Sariindan system’s unification, conveniently falling so recently after the alliance with the first order, it was an ideal opportunity. Representatives from all influential systems in the region were essentially required to be there, and the First Order’s presence was impossible to ignore. The royal palace was in the heart of Sariindan’s capital city. Still relatively new —The influence, and affluence, of the Sariindan system was on the order of decades, rather than centuries old, having begun it’s rise to power only in the twilight years of the old empire—, all tasteful halls with geometric metal decorations, large windows overlooking the city, veiled with delicate, angular filigree. The effect of walking into the banquet hall with it’s dazzlingly complex chandler and patterned marble floors was nothing short of breathtaking. Or rather, it would have been, if Hux did not do this regularly, and made a point of not allowing himself to be terribly impressed by anything.
He did, however, allow himself to be slightly pleased by the impressive figure he and Ren cut entering the hall, all black and red with Hints of silver. His own measured military stride offset by Ren’s graceful stalk. Judging by the dip in the hum of conversation as dozens of pairs, or sets, as the case and species may be, of eyes turned toward them, followed by a surge of poorly concealed whispering, it must have been quite impressive indeed. The effect was somewhat compromised when he had to leave his greatcoat at the door, which was patently unfair, Ren got to keep his cape.
“Remember. No murdering. Under any circumstances. We’re here in honor of peace. All threats must be at least thinly veiled” he muttered sidelong to Ren as the first wave of greetings swiftly approached.
“I’m not utterly stupid. Go butter up a senator” Ren hissed back. Hux would have retorted, but he was beset with several hands to alternatively shake or kiss, and lost sight of Ren entirely. The queen herself made eye contact and nodded decorously, if rather smugly, from across the hall where she was entertaining a gaggle suitors. That was not much of a shock, She was widowed, under the age of sixty, and absurdly rich. Her veritable armada of cousins, children, nieces, and nephews mingled with the crowd of dignitaries of various standing, several shooting dark glances suitor-ward. He knew all about that sticky situation, but it fell under personal matters that were unlikely to affect the steady flow of raw Oridium to First Order refinement facilities the alliance had secured, and was not technically something he had to concern himself with.
Hux made his rounds, greeting each partygoer in turn, making small talk, congratulating recent weddings, answering questions about First Order affairs with vague yet satisfying answers that gave little to nothing about their actual operations away, getting his ass squeezed on no less than three separate occasions by a Grand Duchess, and the foremost grasping appendage of what he had gathered to be the equivalent of a trade minister. The Grand Duchess had done it twice.
He managed to see his way clear to the drinks table, and grabbed two glasses of criminally expensive champagne while silently debating to himself weather he still liked the dress slacks better than his uniform trousers. He spotted the Avarian senator and settled just on the affirmative side. Crisp lines outweighed the possibility of getting groped occasionally by lascivious Grand Duchesses.
“Senator” He offered the left champagne, taking a sip from the right.
“General Hux” the rather swarthy man replied, taking the glass, but not matching Hux’s carefully friendly tone “I was wondering when you’d slither your way over here”
“I’m here in the spirit of friendship, Senator; I hear it’s Unity day, something the Queen holds very dear. Let’s not allow political affiliations to tarnish our mutual friend’s celebration?”
The senator only grunted into his champagne in response. Hux swirled his in it’s glass.
“Ridiculous isn’t it? On the verge of war with the republic and here we are, sipping thousand credit champagne at a banquet” The senator’s grunt, this time, was one of agreement. “Would that we had this kind of budget leeway on our newest trooper training facility” He kept his tone casual. He wanted the senator to think of him as a soldier, not a slimy diplomat. Specifically, the kind of soldier who casually let slip information about the First Order’s impressive standing army of highly trained storm troopers that could provide protection from republic forces at a moment’s notice.
“Have many of those do you? Training facilities.”
“Oh yes, quite a few. These days we’re turning out nearly a thousand combat ready troopers per month” He downed the rest of the bubbly liquid, letting the sharp tang of alcohol and carbonation wash over his tongue. The officer’s bar did not stock stuff anywhere near this quality. “But if we had the budget this party did, I’d venture we could be producing half that again in as much time”
A bushy eyebrow quirked, and he knew he had his foot in the door.
He deftly fielded the Senator’s questions about training and troop assignments, and allowed his attention to drift past the man’s shoulder to where he finally found Ren again, who for all the world looked to be engaging in sparkling conversation with the very Prime minister Hux had assigned him to. He was shocked, if pleasantly so.
Ren said something, the Minister giggled into her daintily gloved hand. Her companion, a waifish sort of youth, nearly of a height with Ren, who might have been anything from her son, to her valet, to her current liaison, stood by, fussing with his mop of fair hair and looking increasingly miffed. This cycle continued for several minutes, until the youth stepped forward and said something cutting, Hux could not make it out, but the hard syllables carried weight even through the ambient chatter. He saw a flash of intensity in Ren’s eyes and felt his stomach drop. Here it was, all down the drain. Ren would snap him in half. He could picture it, the young man suspended by his throat above the crowd, Ren’s face contorted in rage. The gasps, the glances his way, the Queen’s outrage.
But it didn’t happen.
The brief moment of tension passed and Ren was once again gracefully nodding along. The Prime minister scolded her date, and Ren gave a crooked smile.
“General?”
Hux realized he’d been gripping his empty glass very hard indeed. “General?” His eyes refocused on the Senator in front of him, who had evidently noticed his lapse in attention “You were saying, regarding the possibility of the Republic making a move on the ore rich systems in this region?”
“Was I?” He placed the glass on a passing waiter’s tray. “Oh. Yes. Of course. As I was saying. The uncharted regions are by far the most rich in rare minerals such as Oridium and Guerrerite available. The core worlds are nearly mined out, and should war become unavoidable. I have little doubt the republic would make a grab for them, regardless of your, or any other leader’s wishes”
“And you’re saying the First Order would guarantee protection if we exclusively sell to you”
He hadn’t even made the suggestion himself. He smiled at the senator and took another glass from the trayfull that was shoved between them by a waiter.
“And if I were to tell you that the New Republic had already made a similar offer?”
“I’d tell you that each of our storm troopers are equivalent to the combat ability of five republic soldiers, groomed from birth for loyalty, and deployable by the thousands to anywhere in thirty parsecs within an hour.” His smile thinned to a pale line. Avaria was not fifteen parsecs from half of their facilities.
It was not technically a threat. But the sentiment was quite clear: fetch a pretty price for Guerrerite and bonus First Order protection, or get perhaps a slightly higher price from the republic, but when push came to shove, face the Order’s wrath along with every other republic sympathizing system.
The senator paled under his beard. “A thousand a month you said?”
“Trained in state of the art simulations” he confirmed
The senator nodded thoughtfully, but did not seem to want to continue the conversation. Likely for the best, pushing the issue would ruin the headway he’d already made, so he bid the senator farewell, parting with a handshake and ensuring that he had his private comm line.
He had intended to make his way over to check in with Ren, when a shift in the atmosphere led them all toward a table at the end of the hall that had, as if by magic, become lavishly set during the cocktail hour. He and Ren were, of course, seated next to each other, Ren on his left.
He did not wait for Ren to sit before he did. He was polite to a fault, but damn if he was going to be chivalrous to someone who had personally slashed expensive bits of /his/ ship to pieces with an offensive, poorly designed, and frankly appallingly overdramatic lightsaber, even if he did look rather dashing. “Making progress on our Prime Minister?”
“Naturally.”
“Good”
The dinner itself was a five course endeavor, the appetizer something delightfully spicy in a thin broth, followed by various dishes, each more extravagant than the last. Hux ate only perfunctorily, a few bites from each dish. He was not here to enjoy himself, and being overfull on rich food would be more distracting than anything else. He did manage three more glasses of wine. —white with the appetizer and two different reds over the course of the meal— He was not much of a wine drinker, preferring brandy or whisky during his rare indulgences during his personal life, but he needed to keep more than a fraction of his wits about him, even if he had completed his primary objective: opening conversation with Avaria and even making significant headway on them.
His fork related doubts were quickly put to rest when Ren successfully, even effortlessly selected the proper utensil for every course. The fact that the knight opted to ignore him in favor of quiet, conversation with one of the queen’s nephews was also a relief. If a bit boring when the governor to his right was much more engrossed in his food and had no attention to spare for any kind of repartee. With nothing to focus on but the indistinct rumble of Ren’s voice next to him, and being far above shooting jealous glances in that direction, he fell to eavesdropping.
“And she’s just putting up with this endless stream of them, parading them all past us as if the first one she decides to boff won’t be making off with all our inheritances at the first opportunity!” The nephew was whining.
“mm, that must be frustrating”
“Oh it isn’t the half of it! You should see the gifts they think are appropriate” The nephew might have had a tragic poetlike charm with the clearly orchestrated sprawl of his skinny limbs in their far too intricate rich drapery, if he did not have so many spots. “But i’m sure I’m boring you, tell me, what is it you do for the first order? I’m sure it must be terribly exciting with the way tensions have been mounting” A bony hand was lightly brushing Ren’s elbow occasionally. God, was he really trying to get information out of Ren by clumsily flirting?
“I’m afraid my job is even less interesting than your Aunt’s love life”
Hux raised an eyebrow at his largely untouched dessert. Neatly done. Ren, it seemed, would continue to perform far above Hux’s expectations.
Despite his calm demeanor, Hux thought he might have noticed the tension in Ren’s shoulders tightening. He didn’t blame him, the queen’s nephew was so aggressively uninteresting that Hux himself might have found maintaining a conversation with him difficult. But just as he was beginning to fear that he’d have to step in, there was a delighted squeal and the nephew was abruptly dashing from the table towards the dance floor where guests were beginning to congregate. The drinks table that had recently occupied the space had vanished, replaced by a small stage where five musicians were setting up their instruments.
He would dance with the queen first, as he had yet to greet her properly, even if he did run the risk of the wrath of both her suitors, and her collection of jilted relatives. Standing, he opened his mouth to give Ren directions. But before he’d gotten the chance to warn him away from dancing and advise him to simply stand on the periphery with a drink in his hand, Ren had gone with a dramatic swirl of his cape. Without notifying or consulting Hux.
Hux was forced to follow him, keeping the part of him that felt slightly blown off sharply in check. He’d give Ren the dressing down about coordinating with your partner during an operation later. For now, the Queen had finally caught his eye, and he had an alliance to solidify.
Re: Kylux - Fancy Dinner FILL 2/?
It was, by all accounts, a classy event, the anniversary banquet of the date of Sariindan system’s unification, conveniently falling so recently after the alliance with the first order, it was an ideal opportunity. Representatives from all influential systems in the region were essentially required to be there, and the First Order’s presence was impossible to ignore. The royal palace was in the heart of Sariindan’s capital city. Still relatively new —The influence, and affluence, of the Sariindan system was on the order of decades, rather than centuries old, having begun it’s rise to power only in the twilight years of the old empire—, all tasteful halls with geometric metal decorations, large windows overlooking the city, veiled with delicate, angular filigree. The effect of walking into the banquet hall with it’s dazzlingly complex chandler and patterned marble floors was nothing short of breathtaking. Or rather, it would have been, if Hux did not do this regularly, and made a point of not allowing himself to be terribly impressed by anything.
He did, however, allow himself to be slightly pleased by the impressive figure he and Ren cut entering the hall, all black and red with Hints of silver. His own measured military stride offset by Ren’s graceful stalk. Judging by the dip in the hum of conversation as dozens of pairs, or sets, as the case and species may be, of eyes turned toward them, followed by a surge of poorly concealed whispering, it must have been quite impressive indeed. The effect was somewhat compromised when he had to leave his greatcoat at the door, which was patently unfair, Ren got to keep his cape.
“Remember. No murdering. Under any circumstances. We’re here in honor of peace. All threats must be at least thinly veiled” he muttered sidelong to Ren as the first wave of greetings swiftly approached.
“I’m not utterly stupid. Go butter up a senator” Ren hissed back. Hux would have retorted, but he was beset with several hands to alternatively shake or kiss, and lost sight of Ren entirely. The queen herself made eye contact and nodded decorously, if rather smugly, from across the hall where she was entertaining a gaggle suitors. That was not much of a shock, She was widowed, under the age of sixty, and absurdly rich. Her veritable armada of cousins, children, nieces, and nephews mingled with the crowd of dignitaries of various standing, several shooting dark glances suitor-ward. He knew all about that sticky situation, but it fell under personal matters that were unlikely to affect the steady flow of raw Oridium to First Order refinement facilities the alliance had secured, and was not technically something he had to concern himself with.
Hux made his rounds, greeting each partygoer in turn, making small talk, congratulating recent weddings, answering questions about First Order affairs with vague yet satisfying answers that gave little to nothing about their actual operations away, getting his ass squeezed on no less than three separate occasions by a Grand Duchess, and the foremost grasping appendage of what he had gathered to be the equivalent of a trade minister. The Grand Duchess had done it twice.
He managed to see his way clear to the drinks table, and grabbed two glasses of criminally expensive champagne while silently debating to himself weather he still liked the dress slacks better than his uniform trousers. He spotted the Avarian senator and settled just on the affirmative side. Crisp lines outweighed the possibility of getting groped occasionally by lascivious Grand Duchesses.
“Senator” He offered the left champagne, taking a sip from the right.
“General Hux” the rather swarthy man replied, taking the glass, but not matching Hux’s carefully friendly tone “I was wondering when you’d slither your way over here”
“I’m here in the spirit of friendship, Senator; I hear it’s Unity day, something the Queen holds very dear. Let’s not allow political affiliations to tarnish our mutual friend’s celebration?”
The senator only grunted into his champagne in response. Hux swirled his in it’s glass.
“Ridiculous isn’t it? On the verge of war with the republic and here we are, sipping thousand credit champagne at a banquet” The senator’s grunt, this time, was one of agreement. “Would that we had this kind of budget leeway on our newest trooper training facility” He kept his tone casual. He wanted the senator to think of him as a soldier, not a slimy diplomat. Specifically, the kind of soldier who casually let slip information about the First Order’s impressive standing army of highly trained storm troopers that could provide protection from republic forces at a moment’s notice.
“Have many of those do you? Training facilities.”
“Oh yes, quite a few. These days we’re turning out nearly a thousand combat ready troopers per month” He downed the rest of the bubbly liquid, letting the sharp tang of alcohol and carbonation wash over his tongue. The officer’s bar did not stock stuff anywhere near this quality. “But if we had the budget this party did, I’d venture we could be producing half that again in as much time”
A bushy eyebrow quirked, and he knew he had his foot in the door.
He deftly fielded the Senator’s questions about training and troop assignments, and allowed his attention to drift past the man’s shoulder to where he finally found Ren again, who for all the world looked to be engaging in sparkling conversation with the very Prime minister Hux had assigned him to. He was shocked, if pleasantly so.
Ren said something, the Minister giggled into her daintily gloved hand. Her companion, a waifish sort of youth, nearly of a height with Ren, who might have been anything from her son, to her valet, to her current liaison, stood by, fussing with his mop of fair hair and looking increasingly miffed. This cycle continued for several minutes, until the youth stepped forward and said something cutting, Hux could not make it out, but the hard syllables carried weight even through the ambient chatter. He saw a flash of intensity in Ren’s eyes and felt his stomach drop. Here it was, all down the drain. Ren would snap him in half. He could picture it, the young man suspended by his throat above the crowd, Ren’s face contorted in rage. The gasps, the glances his way, the Queen’s outrage.
But it didn’t happen.
The brief moment of tension passed and Ren was once again gracefully nodding along. The Prime minister scolded her date, and Ren gave a crooked smile.
“General?”
Hux realized he’d been gripping his empty glass very hard indeed. “General?” His eyes refocused on the Senator in front of him, who had evidently noticed his lapse in attention “You were saying, regarding the possibility of the Republic making a move on the ore rich systems in this region?”
“Was I?” He placed the glass on a passing waiter’s tray. “Oh. Yes. Of course. As I was saying. The uncharted regions are by far the most rich in rare minerals such as Oridium and Guerrerite available. The core worlds are nearly mined out, and should war become unavoidable. I have little doubt the republic would make a grab for them, regardless of your, or any other leader’s wishes”
“And you’re saying the First Order would guarantee protection if we exclusively sell to you”
He hadn’t even made the suggestion himself. He smiled at the senator and took another glass from the trayfull that was shoved between them by a waiter.
“And if I were to tell you that the New Republic had already made a similar offer?”
“I’d tell you that each of our storm troopers are equivalent to the combat ability of five republic soldiers, groomed from birth for loyalty, and deployable by the thousands to anywhere in thirty parsecs within an hour.” His smile thinned to a pale line. Avaria was not fifteen parsecs from half of their facilities.
It was not technically a threat. But the sentiment was quite clear: fetch a pretty price for Guerrerite and bonus First Order protection, or get perhaps a slightly higher price from the republic, but when push came to shove, face the Order’s wrath along with every other republic sympathizing system.
The senator paled under his beard. “A thousand a month you said?”
“Trained in state of the art simulations” he confirmed
The senator nodded thoughtfully, but did not seem to want to continue the conversation. Likely for the best, pushing the issue would ruin the headway he’d already made, so he bid the senator farewell, parting with a handshake and ensuring that he had his private comm line.
He had intended to make his way over to check in with Ren, when a shift in the atmosphere led them all toward a table at the end of the hall that had, as if by magic, become lavishly set during the cocktail hour. He and Ren were, of course, seated next to each other, Ren on his left.
He did not wait for Ren to sit before he did. He was polite to a fault, but damn if he was going to be chivalrous to someone who had personally slashed expensive bits of /his/ ship to pieces with an offensive, poorly designed, and frankly appallingly overdramatic lightsaber, even if he did look rather dashing. “Making progress on our Prime Minister?”
“Naturally.”
“Good”
The dinner itself was a five course endeavor, the appetizer something delightfully spicy in a thin broth, followed by various dishes, each more extravagant than the last. Hux ate only perfunctorily, a few bites from each dish. He was not here to enjoy himself, and being overfull on rich food would be more distracting than anything else. He did manage three more glasses of wine. —white with the appetizer and two different reds over the course of the meal— He was not much of a wine drinker, preferring brandy or whisky during his rare indulgences during his personal life, but he needed to keep more than a fraction of his wits about him, even if he had completed his primary objective: opening conversation with Avaria and even making significant headway on them.
His fork related doubts were quickly put to rest when Ren successfully, even effortlessly selected the proper utensil for every course. The fact that the knight opted to ignore him in favor of quiet, conversation with one of the queen’s nephews was also a relief. If a bit boring when the governor to his right was much more engrossed in his food and had no attention to spare for any kind of repartee. With nothing to focus on but the indistinct rumble of Ren’s voice next to him, and being far above shooting jealous glances in that direction, he fell to eavesdropping.
“And she’s just putting up with this endless stream of them, parading them all past us as if the first one she decides to boff won’t be making off with all our inheritances at the first opportunity!” The nephew was whining.
“mm, that must be frustrating”
“Oh it isn’t the half of it! You should see the gifts they think are appropriate” The nephew might have had a tragic poetlike charm with the clearly orchestrated sprawl of his skinny limbs in their far too intricate rich drapery, if he did not have so many spots. “But i’m sure I’m boring you, tell me, what is it you do for the first order? I’m sure it must be terribly exciting with the way tensions have been mounting” A bony hand was lightly brushing Ren’s elbow occasionally. God, was he really trying to get information out of Ren by clumsily flirting?
“I’m afraid my job is even less interesting than your Aunt’s love life”
Hux raised an eyebrow at his largely untouched dessert. Neatly done. Ren, it seemed, would continue to perform far above Hux’s expectations.
Despite his calm demeanor, Hux thought he might have noticed the tension in Ren’s shoulders tightening. He didn’t blame him, the queen’s nephew was so aggressively uninteresting that Hux himself might have found maintaining a conversation with him difficult. But just as he was beginning to fear that he’d have to step in, there was a delighted squeal and the nephew was abruptly dashing from the table towards the dance floor where guests were beginning to congregate. The drinks table that had recently occupied the space had vanished, replaced by a small stage where five musicians were setting up their instruments.
He would dance with the queen first, as he had yet to greet her properly, even if he did run the risk of the wrath of both her suitors, and her collection of jilted relatives. Standing, he opened his mouth to give Ren directions. But before he’d gotten the chance to warn him away from dancing and advise him to simply stand on the periphery with a drink in his hand, Ren had gone with a dramatic swirl of his cape. Without notifying or consulting Hux.
Hux was forced to follow him, keeping the part of him that felt slightly blown off sharply in check. He’d give Ren the dressing down about coordinating with your partner during an operation later. For now, the Queen had finally caught his eye, and he had an alliance to solidify.