to your stations, and may the Force be with us

[protectingthelight]

Who: Amilyn Holdo and YOU.
What: Holdo settles in at Riverview, has some awkward conversations, and generally has to deal with being here after mumble mumble spoiler mumble. Feel free to tag in off a prompt, or roll your own. Also, there will be comments for threads with specific people.
Where: Various locations including but not limited to: housing, government buildings, around town.
When: Over the first week or so that she's here.
Warnings: 'ware spoilers. I won't include any here, but threads will no doubt include them of necessity.

1. Community housing
If you live on the eighth floor, you will probably see Amilyn fairly regularly. She cuts a pretty unmistakable figure, being nearly six feet tall and with that purple hair and all. She's hung up her Republic-style gown for the time being (saving it, maybe, for some suitable occasion), but even with her civilian clothes she still wears her bracelets and rings.

2. Government offices
Amilyn shows up for work pretty much the day after she gets her assignment. So if you work as a community ambassador—congratulations, you have a new coworker. She's diligently setting up her workspace and getting caught up on all the latest news.

3. Entertainment and shopping district
All work and no play and all that stuff. Amilyn goes for walks, taking in the new sights and sounds, maybe stopping for a bite to eat somewhere interesting.

4. Wildcard
Feel free to suggest anything!

Comments

[protectingthelight]

There's a blink and a double-take as she takes the scarf. She's never met the rogue Stormtrooper, but of course she's heard of him—who in the Resistance hasn't?

"Finn. Where are you from?"

She has a feeling she knows the answer already.

[protectingthelight]

"Neither have I. To be honest, I've found it all a bit overwhelming."

Not least because she seems to keep meeting people from her own universe, but not necessarily the same place in time. That will knock almost anyone's equilibrium into a cocked hat.

So she has to ask: "I don't suppose you've got anyone else from your world here?"

[protectingthelight]

She takes one of those dance steps, the kind people do when they're trying to out-polite one another.

"Not at all; you were here first."

[protectingthelight]

"Often, particularly when I was young," she deadpans.

At the mentions of the names, her expression alters, and her gaze drops to her teacup, as if there was some kind of explanation waiting there.

"I've seen Leia," she says quietly.

[hylights]

She smiles at that, nodding her understanding. It's hard to focus on meeting others when there's just so much to see outside. Yet even Zelda's bottomless curiosity won't allow her to carry on by herself forever. It would be lonely.

At Amilyn's question she shakes her head, sobering a little. "No... not that I have seen. I haven't seen anyone yet who looks like they're Hylian." Her gaze flicks to Amilyn's ears for a moment - the real telltale sign. "Or one of the other peoples I know."

[realists]

[ jyn doesn't... know what she does for entertainment. she reads, she supposes. she exists without the shadow of war. she works. she works a lot. she enjoys the job they gave her, camping. ]

I run.

[oldladyleia]

Leia was, to quote her husband, having a bad feeling about this, and she frowned as she watched her oldest friend. There was sadness there in waves, and Leia could feel it merging with her own, stoking it almost. Answering the question was something that Leia knew was only going to lead to heartbreak, but she also knew that she needed to do it anyway.

"I was on D'Qar after the Starkiller base had been destroyed. I had just sent Rey to find Luke with the map that had been recovered." Leia paused, and she sighed because she hadn't considered that they might be here from different times either. "You're from later on, aren't you?"

[bythehand]

He's had enough time here to get used to fielding that question from new acquaintances. And it's something he's definitely tried to learn to get used to fielding. Just-- trying to contain the information that gets out about him, about where he's really from.

Maybe it's a little dumb. He's not ashamed of leaving. But it's nice to feel like he has control over something about himself.

"It's complicated," is where he starts, because that was probably the very first thing he learned in explaining not particularly wanting to explain. "I was on a planet called D'Qar for a while, though. Before this place. I'm from there about as much as I'm from anywhere else."

His reasons for being there don't necessarily need to matter, since the Resistance isn't something he's looking to inadvertently sell out. And okay, technically the last thing he remembered was Kylo Ren on Starkiller, but he trusts Rey and Poe's assertions that he didn't die there.

[volitaunt]

"Admiral?"

He leans back a little in his chair, scratching his forehead.

"Is... this is something else I'm not supposed to know, isn't it."

Then, because curiosity nearly always wins and because it's a safer topic than the future, he says, "How... well do you know her?"

[evasives]

They could keep going back and forth about this, but that would bring too much pointless attention to it all. He nods and slips inside first, but he does hold the door open for her to take anyway.

"It is not worth the argument." He says it very lightly, but it's well meaning. One of the workers behind the counter gives him a wave; he's clearly been here before.

[protectingthelight]

She laughs a little and goes in after him, noticing the wave from the worker. "You're a regular here, I see. What's good?"

[protectingthelight]

The complexity of time, again. Poe Dameron didn't know her before, didn't know her closeness with Leia. It's too hard to pick this tangle apart, so she focuses on the question, which she might as well answer honestly.

"We've been friends since we were girls," she said. "We met as apprentice legislators to the Senate. It's because of her that I am where—got to where I was, I suppose. I joined the Rebellion because of her."

Almost by accident, really. But, she always felt, a happy one.

[protectingthelight]

A Stormtrooper and a who are doing what now?

So this is the man himself! Of course she's heard of him, seen a holo of him even, but it's different seeing him in person, hence her not having recognized him fully before he laid out his name and history. She smiles broadly.

"So you're the Stormtrooper," she says. "I've heard of you—though there's no reason you'd know me. My name is Amilyn Holdo, and I'm—was—an officer in the Resistance. Fancy meeting you here, of all places."

[protectingthelight]

Amilyn nods slowly. "So you're the same as Dameron, then," she says. She sighs, passes a hand over her face. "Yes, I'm from ... a bit later."

She'd refused to tell Poe anything about his future, but that's Poe—someone she's got an extremely troubled recent history with, even though he hasn't had it yet (why does this have to be so kriffing complicated). This is one of her oldest friends. (And, let's face it, an older and wiser person.) She's not sure if she could hold back, if directly asked.

[protectingthelight]

Are there good places for it? I always thought of it as something more ... practical, shall we say, but I'm not sure if I'll find anywhere my preferred forms of exercise here.

[ Not to mention the meters and meters of fabric needed for skyfaring. Anyway—Amilyn isn't really sure why she's working so hard to make small talk, but it's something to do for the hour, and some part of her wants to see if she can draw this young woman out even a little. Particularly if she's really ... who she isn't saying she is. ]

[protectingthelight]

Interesting. "There seems to have been a run on people from my own," she says wryly. "I'm sorry you haven't got anyone—but I feel I should say that it's a little of a mixed blessing."

[evasives]

Oh, it's conversation time. That's okay, he's getting better about that and meaning it. There's a difference between fake small talk and real small talk.

"Today I am here for some soup, but the sandwiches are also a good choice." He pauses. "Are you new to the quarantine, or just new to the cafe?"

[volitaunt]

There are two things that strike him simultaneously.

Would she have ended up like Leia, if her parents had been like Bail and Breha Organa?

That's the innocent one, the what-if that carries no danger.

I am. I got.

Something cold washes through him, connections made and suspicions borne on a flood of denial. Cassian and Jyn are here.

Cassian and Jyn are dead.

His voice is a whisper.

"You're not going back with us, are you."

[protectingthelight]

Damn hotshot flyboy, too damned smart for his own good...

She meets his gaze. A small shake of her head.

[protectingthelight]

"Both," she replies. "I've been in the quarantine about ... oh, a week now, and I've been trying out a different place along here—" the street "—every day. So now it's this place's turn."

[evasives]

"I have been here a while, and I still occasionally find a new place to eat."

They shuffle over towards the line. It's a busy enough cafe to prove it's good, but not overwhelming packed. The Ideal Spot, as far as Cassian is concerned. "Do you need another welcome, or have you gotten plenty enough already?"

[volitaunt]

He sinks a little in his chair. He wants to say there's got to be a way to fix it. He wants to say that there has to be something here to combat whatever situation she was in. Some way, some way.

But what was it he told Rey? He won't make a promise he can't keep.

"Oh."

[hylights]

"Really? But it must be a comfort, to be able to share some of this with people who understand your point of view."

That's at least how Zelda would feel about it, she's sure. The only person she truly knows in person now is Link, and he isn't here. Any other Hylians, though... or Zora, or Rito... any of them. They would find this just as huge an experience.

"If you don't mind my asking," she ventures, curious. "What do you mean by mixed blessing?"

[oldladyleia]

Amilyn doesn't need to tell Leia about the future. It's all there in her friend's face and in the way that she had been greeted. Something happens. Something terrible and her friend dies. Died. Died to get herself and no doubt as many people from the Resistance out of the battle as possible. The victory that they'd faced had felt hollow already, with Han's death but now it just felt all the worse because whatever had happened following it was all the more terrible.

Without thinking about it, Leia just wrapped her arms tightly around her friend and held onto her like she hadn't in a long time. When Leia speaks, her voice is soft. "We're going to fix it, Amilyn. What ever happened to you then, we're going to fix it. Ben is here and we're going to stop whatever comes next."

And of course, that meant that she was going to need to explain Ben, but for now, Leia just held her tightly.

[realists]

I run a path around the city. [ not a worn or marked path, jyn and cassian made it themselves. ]

Otherwise I prefer being outside the walls.