[open] so don't stop me now

[volitaunt]

who: Poe Dameron (and by extension BB-8) + YOU
what: Catchall log
when: The remainder of November
where: Multiple locations
warnings: None at the moment, will edit as needed.



i. perimeter guard: aerial survey & exploration

[ Poe is making out with getting to know the Intrepid. At the moment he's underneath the ship on a rolling dolly, keeping up a steady stream of commentary to BB-8 while he roots around in an open panel.

BB-8 is next to him, projecting a hologram of the inner workings of the ship. ]

--deflectors aren't bad, but this baby has nothing on an X-wing. No offense. [ That last bit is directed at the ship, which he pats before going back into its insides. ] I'm thinking we can squeeze a little more speed out of these thrusters if we modify the thermal vents. What do you think, buddy?

[ BB-8 chirrups his support for the idea as Poe emerges again, hair sticking up from sweat and face marked with grease. ] Need to clear it with Jim first. Man, if Jess were here, she'd go to town on this thing.

ii. also... perimeter.... guard..........

[ Poe isn't really the weight lifting type. It's boring, for one thing. A static exercise. If he can't be in the air, he'd rather be in motion.

Which is why he's in the Perimeter Guard's fitness area whaling away on a few of the standing targets instead. Kicks, punches, all relatively basic moves executed at high speed. He knows enough to get by in a hand-to-hand combat scenario, but he's no advanced martial artist. The moves he knows are enough to get him a full-body workout, and that's good enough for him. His accuracy isn't great, not when his muscles protest this particularly vigorous abuse, not with the numbness in his arms and legs that gives way to tingling pain somewhere close to the surface of his skin. It makes him grateful the First Order didn't go after his hands. He can deal with the time it takes for the rest to heal.

--Also, he's talking to BB-8 the whole time he moves, conversation punctuated with grunts and the sounds of impact. ] --can't let ourselves get comfortable, you know? We-- need to be ready to-- move at a moment's notice.

[ He pauses, and BB-8 rolls over to the edge of the practice mat with a towel held in one maintenance grip and a water bottle in another. Poe takes both, taking a drink and wiping his face, speaking while his face is in the towel. ] Need to figure out a high-speed way to get a hold of Rey and Finn, so if they line the portal up or whatever it is they need to do we can hit it together. A kind of emergency signal.

iii. a park

[ He's jogging, focused on the motion of legs and arms, entirely absorbed in the rhythm. BB-8 rolls along in his wake, the droid more interested in their surroundings and the things in them than keeping up. At least since they're in public he's not rambling at his droid this time??

But you can bet if BB-8 sees something interesting or someone familiar, he'll detour away from his owner. ]

iv. a bar!

[ Poe doesn't drink much, and he doesn't let his pilots drink either. It's too much of a risk when they need to be ready to move the second intel or orders come in. Still, he likes people watching, and bars are a pretty good place to do it. (BB-8 elected to stay at the communal housing building.)

He is definitely not trying to avoid sleeping, because he's definitely not getting more tense with every day that goes past. Old habits, though. He's nursing a tonic with lime, since it's what the bar tender suggested for someone who doesn't want alcohol. ]

v. wildcard

[ Something else? Hit me! ]

Comments

[volitaunt]

[ Taa...ko.....

Poe blinks at the sudden arm around his shoulders, and then hides a smile behind his hand at the request. He signals the bartender, raising his voice just enough to carry. ] Get my friend whatever he wants that isn’t more than eighty proof.

[ Quieter: ] Fair and square, huh?

[spellslots]

My hero.

[Taako plants a kiss on Poe's cheek, then releases him to claim a bar stool, making a show of struggling with it a little just in case he's still being watched.

To the barman:]

Just a g-and-t, thanks.

[To Poe:]

There was no magic involved, so like, super fair, super square.

[That's his own metric of cheating. A hustle is just a hustle, if someone is dumb enough to fall for it that's their own problem.]

[volitaunt]

[ Poe laughs quietly. ] Well, as long as there wasn't any magic.

[ Bar game hustles are as old as the galaxy itself, Poe is pretty sure. Far be it from him to critique evening pastimes that don't end with bloody noses. Still: ] You do this a lot?

[spellslots]

Nah, just got bored and they seemed kinda easy, you know how it is.

[Does he? Taako has had to fight for everything since before he was even a teenager, and it's skewed his morals a little to the left.]

Do you sit alone in bars without drinking a lot? Cause like, you can just call me if you're bored, I don't sleep that much.

[They've had one (1) conversation, but this is how Taako rolls.]

[volitaunt]

[ Look, it's pretty much how Poe rolls too, lbr.

Poe has a hard time judging people when their actions are pretty harmless in the long run. He's recruited from too many different sources and too many different backgrounds. People survive how they survive, and if the damage they do is minimal, he's not going to fault them for it.

He toasts Taako with his tonic. ]

Just scoping out the night life.

[spellslots]

[As soon as the bartender passes Taako his drink, he lifts it to make that little toast.]

I thought you didn't party.

[Call out post for Poe.]

[volitaunt]

[ Wow Taako he came out to not drink and honestly he's feeling so attacked right now. ]

Couldn't sleep. [ THERE. HAPPY? ]

[spellslots]

[Yes, actually! He gives Poe a sympathetic little pat on the arm.]

Getting used to this place takes a while.

[The last few months have been... difficult, but he's softened a lot in the wake of them.]

But hey, listen, I mean it about giving me a call or whatever. I only sleep four hours and my boyfriend's nocturnal so, uh, you know.

[He's awake at night a lot.]

[volitaunt]

[ Poe relaxes. He'd been worried, for a second there, that someone else was going to do the whole emotional honesty thing and he cannot do more of that right now. ]

Hopefully I won't have a chance to get used to it. [ Yeah, he's still focused on the going home part rather than the making oneself comfortable while here part. ] But thanks. I'll remember.

[ It could even be nice, having someone to talk to when he can't settle. ]

[spellslots]

[Hahahaha god can u imagine

He just gives Poe an OK sign, and swiftly moves on.]

You been staying outta trouble?

[volitaunt]

[ That earns Taako a grin. ] So far, but that's only because I haven't been trying.

[ Trying to stay out of trouble? Trying to get in it? Honestly either one is a recipe for disaster with Poe. ]

[spellslots]

And if you were trying to get into trouble? What would that look like?

[It sounds a little like flirting but honestly he's just Like That]

[volitaunt]

[ Poe squints thoughtfully. ] That would probably look like a dogfight on a recon mission.

[ He raises his glass to take another drink and pauses. ] Or getting arrested trying to break someone out of prison. [ A sip. ] Or meeting an old friend for drinks and ending up kidnapped by Stormtroopers.

[ None of those were classified it's fine. ]

[spellslots]

Oh, I've done the prison one!

[He looks so pleased with himself! Common ground!]

How'd you get outta that one?

[volitaunt]

My droid hacked the orbiting monitoring station and took over control of the whole prison. We made a deal--we got to keep our rescue, they got their prison back.

[ Which is not exactly how it went, but it's close enough. He's not going to talk about how badly things went after that point. Fuckin' Terex. ] You?

[spellslots]

Turned into a cat and snuck right through the bars, they were not expecting that one.

[He says that as though it's a perfectly normal thing for someone to do.]

What's a droid?

[volitaunt]

[ Right, droids are not... a thing, here.... Poe can't decide if that's more or less weird than turning into a cat. ]

They're.... droids. [ Suddenly he wishes BB-8 had come with him instead of hanging out with Finn and Rey. ] Complex AI. BB-8 -- that's my unit -- he's an astromech, which means he's specifically designed as a flight assistant and tech.

[ Poe warms to the subject, thinking of his friend. ] They're smart, adaptive, and I swear sometimes I'll catch Bee daydreaming. They're not supposed to be able to do that, but I'm not convinced.

[spellslots]

[Oh, he knows what AI means! The rest of it, not so much, but he can put it together based on that.]

So like, robots?

[volitaunt]

[ Poe makes a face at the word. ]

They're a lot more than robots.

[spellslots]

Okay, but you're talking to an elf wizard so you're gonna let me have this one.

[What he means is: he's not used to such advanced technology, so he's dumbing it down for himself.]

Also, I know some lovely robots, nothing wrong with being a robot. Noelle saved our entire asses once but she's a ghost-in-a-robot-body, not a computer.

[volitaunt]

[ For a second Poe goes ???? at that declaration and then decides maybe it's like, an elf wizard thing. So he will, in fact, let Taako have it. ]

Wait-- ghost? What kind of ghost? [ Like Force ghost or ghost-ghost because he's pretty sure he only believes in one of those or at least he did until this weirdass place. ]

[spellslots]

Oh, uh, so... people have souls and those souls turn into ghosts. Most of the time they'd go straight to the astral plane which is like - the afterlife? But Noelle got stuck in a robot cause Lucas Miller is a fucking dick.

[Taako hates Lucas, news at 11]

[volitaunt]

[ That last part startles a laugh out of Poe. ] Sorry. I didn't-- I wasn't laughing at your friend being stuck in a robot.

[ That sure is a sentence he just said. ]

[spellslots]

[Taako grins almost immediately, so obviously he's not offended.]

You wanna hear the best part? [He's not giving Poe a chance to respond to that, it's a rhetorical question, but Taako does drop his voice to a half-whisper as if this is a secret.] I've been on a date with a ghost.

[volitaunt]

[ Okay the laughing is back. ]

How-- With the ghost in the robot or was this a different ghost?