At that moment, the container trembled, and Hux stumbled back. “What the kriffing hell have you brought in here, Ren?!” he hissed, as the box shook again before falling still.
“It’s precisely to your tastes, General,” Kylo promised, unable to keep the grin from his face. “I spent three standard cycles hunting it down. I had to do it carefully, you know. Had to find one that was the right size, and at the right stage of development.”
“What. Is. It.” Hux grit out, and Kylo finally gave in and opened the box. He would’ve liked for Hux to do it, but the look on Hux’s face was almost as good, when the first shiny, red-purple limb curled out of the depths of the container and began feeling around its outside surface. Hux’s eyes had gone wide. His face had gone pale, except for two high spots of colour on his cheeks. He licked his lips, and did not blink.
Another tentacle flopped out of the box, and then a third, a fourth, and then the body of the creature emerged. It had no visible eyes, and was no larger than a BB unit, but sensed the world around it with a pair of long antennae near the front of its body. It was slick, and its body was bulbous, gravid even, and overall it was not a particularly attractive thing, nestled among its six twisting arms. Hux was looking at it like it was Life Day morning.
“Do you like it?” Kylo asked, stepping around the desk to be closer to Hux.
“I…” A complex reaction seemed to be taking place on Hux’s face. “Why would you… I can only assume you’ve managed to get into my mind. Is this blackmail of some kind? Are you trying to shame me?”
His face was dismayed, but he didn’t seem to be able to access his usual vehemence. His eyes remained fixed to the creature as it read the room with minute waves of its antennae. Kylo hadn’t prepared for this reaction.
“I didn’t take it from your mind,” he said. “I’m not trying to degrade you. I’m… offering this to you.”
Finally, Hux turned, laid the full weight of his state on Kylo. “Why?” he asked, searching Kylo’s face. “Why would you do that? What do you want from me?”
“I was hoping you would let me watch,” Kylo replied, forcing himself to hold Hux’s gaze. Hux gasped when the realisation hit him, flicked his eyes frantically between Kylo and the creature. The silence grew thick, and Kylo nearly reached out for Hux’s mind on the off chance his distraction would weaken his façades enough that Kylo could actually get something out of him, but then Hux stripped his gloves, and raised his hands, pale, sweaty, to the collar of his uniform.
dispatches from the dumpster 