( closed ) scouting the wall

[winscenario]

who: Jim Kirk, Beverly Crusher, Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, Chyler Silva, Hana Song, Emma Swan (+ anyone else who's still interested! feel free to PM me, no worries)
what: team mission
when: February 7th - 17th
where: along the wall of the Abandoned City
warnings: monster fighting & consequent injuries at most

With the prospect of more power in the near future, the Government of Riverview is looking for multiple teams of people to take a survey of the wall surrounding the Abandoned City and note all structural damage and areas where the integrity of the wall is compromised. The objective is to note the location and nature of any structural damage or interference with the tech components (laser emitters, etc.) that is compromising the integrity of the outer wall.

The team assembled by Jim Kirk will head out on the shuttle, making the trip at least far quicker, although long stretches of the wall are done by foot, in smaller groups or pairs. No one is advised to be out there on their own. Everyone will be given a handheld scanning device to study the wall, and a device similar to a tablet where they can store all the data, complete with detailed instructions on how to use both. The shuttle will be available to pick people up and drop them off at different points of the wall as needed, to try and make the trip as quick as possible.


[ ooc: this will work as a mingle log, so everyone is free to write up their own top levels and/or tag around as much as they like. ]

Comments

[evasives]

[he can see it in her posture that she's slowly and silently accepting his words, however reluctantly. he doesn't smile, but his face softens. good, they're on the same page again here. they're both still going to worry, but maybe they won't get so grumpy about it anymore.]

[he lifts his hand away from her leg to brush his fingers across his face. the stubble is a little longer than he likes to keep it, but he hasn't shaved in a few days. it's a lot easier in the bathroom at home, and he only has one good hand now.]

It might have to wait. [he wiggles his fingers in the hand she's wrapping up. in a day or two it'll be okay.]

[realists]

[ jyn's nose wrinkles slightly, mouth slanting down in a thoughtful frown while she continues to carefully bandage his hand. ]

I can do it.

[ it opens up questions jyn isn't sure she wants to answer but. ]

[evasives]

[her offer catches him off guard. she's getting too good at that, and he's not sure how he feels about it either. it's not bad? maybe it just means he can let his guard down around her that still strikes him odd.]

Have you done it before?

[shaved a face, he means. he assumes she's shaved in some capacity? but also maybe not??]

[realists]

[ tying off the dressing and tucking the knot neatly away gives her time to debate brushing it off, but eventually she shrugs. ]

I used to shave Saw's head. I was better at it than he was.

[ she looks up, a little defiant. a familiar look that comes with a lot of jyn's tidbits of her past. like she's trying to overpower it before it can be used as a weapon against her. ]

I won't go down to the skin anyway. [ she likes his stubble, it's familiar. ]

[evasives]

[the image of a tiny jyn shaving saw gerrera's head is almost adorable? even if he knows the brutality of which both are capable. it's telling about how saw felt.]

[he could trust her to it. he trusts her with so much else; it's literally pressing a razor to his skin which should send off so many warning bells with the vulnerability, but saw trusted her. cassian trusts her more. he hates letting his beard get too long as much as he hates being totally clean shaven.]

[this is stupid.]

Okay. As long as you leave some of it.

[realists]

[ now she does want to shave it all off, but not enough to put the effort into doing that. ]

Of course, Captain.

[ keep that scruff. ]

[evasives]

[he half smiles.]

Too much gone feels too imperial. [a beat.] Do you want to just... do it now?

[since she is already apparently in a take-care-of-him mood.]

[realists]

[ jyn feels some inexplicable rush of heat and she finally releases his freshly dressed hand, setting it back on his knee. ]

Sure. [ a beat, looking thoughtful. ] How often do you shave?

[evasives]

[he will not admit it feels better to have his hand wrapped. but he will mutter a very quiet thank you, even if she has terrible bedside manner.]

Every two or three days. It depends. [a pause.] I brought some soap and a razor in case I had the time out here. We just need some water.

[realists]

It should be purified by now.

[ not that they particularly need clean water for shaving but it would probably be better than not. ] I'll check.

[ and she unfolds from her spot to do just that, fiddling with the jug as she inspects the water. ]

[evasives]

[while she does that, he digs around without comment for his soap and razor, feeling oddly mechanical about the whole thing even if what's to come is new.]

[he's glad they're in the tent. not that they'd be anywhere else, but the point! still stands! he settles back down in his spot and waits for her to come back, shooting her a softly wry smile.]

Soap? Or should I -?

[realists]

I can. [ jyn pours some water out into a cup and rifles through her pack for a couple washcloths before she moves back to him. she pauses briefly before she drops down to her knees and sets the water to the side, holding her hand out for the soap. once he's passed it over she starts working a lather between her hands. ]

Are you sure you just want it cleaned up? Merrick's mustache would look good on you or maybe Organa's half beard?

[evasives]

[he sits in a weird state of comfortable and nervous, watching her soap up her hands. somehow it did not occur to him that she would be touching his face, as though shaving involves zero face touching.]

[he rolls his eyes at her though, that helps.] I am quite sure, thank you. You know how I like to keep it. Organa's goatee works only on him. [a beat.] I can't believe how long he has kept that style.

[realists]

He's had it at least since I was eight. [ lather lather lather, it is starting to be a very rich lather and she lifts her hands to start smoothing it across his face. ]

I'd forgotten, but meeting Leia had reminded me. Saw took me to the Alliance, once.

[evasives]

[he sort of pauses for a second, distracted by her hands. how fortunate that his response follow up just makes it seem like he was thinking.]

You met him when you were eight? [he remembers that alliance meeting, because it was one of the big ones. one of the few times they got saw gererra to come to them at the table. it never occurred to him until now that jyn might have... been there, because of saw.]

[he was twelve. nearly thirteen. already doing grunt spy work, but no real undercover missions yet. he'd been on base for that meeting.] I remember it. It was a big deal, at the time.

[he smiles, very very quietly and softly.] We were on the same planet.

[realists]

[ he has a full white beard of soap and jyn draws back, looking surprised, their thoughts running along the same lines. it hadn't occurred to her until now that cassian would have been there as well. he's older than her, he's been doing this longer, he would have already been there for years by the time Saw dragged her unhappy, pigtailed tush into the room with him.

saw had brought her even after shooing jyn out of countless meetings on wrea because she couldn't keep her mouth shut when galen's name was brought up, but she was too young to be left alone on the island planet and saw trusted approximately zero people so he'd brought her along. she has almost no memory of it and she can't even be sure she was eight still because what are birthdays, but she remembered seeing bail organa because she recognized him years later when she watched the holos of the last senate hearings, when he and mon mothma tried to plead with the senate to recognize the state of the empire. ]

You wouldn't have liked me when I was eight, [ jyn finally says, wiping her hands off on the dry towel. ] I tended to bite.

[evasives]

[he hadn't been to the meeting, even if draven was, even if draven was already molding him into prime spy material. he knew everything that happened anyway, although all the finer details came out much later, the full transcript available to him as he got older. it's so strange to think about jyn being there, at the same time. children weren't in abundance on rebel bases, but they weren't unusual either. cassian always knew other kids involved in the fight, whether it was in old cells or in the rebel streets. especially in the outer rim, where the end of the clone wars wasn't really an end. now there was an official empire to combat, just without the support of a separatist army.]

[his smile widens.] That does not surprise me. You would still do it now.

[in a fight, obviously, because there is no other context in which jyn would bite someone. AGGRESSIVELY IGNORES THAT TRAIN OF THOUGHT.] I was already in line for intelligence. Not officially, but it's a unit full of unofficial business.

[realists]

[ she shrugs, knowing he is right. she would definitely bite in a fight now if it gave her an advantage. she knows what she's about. apparently cassian does, too. ]

Alright, sit still.

[ no more smiling, he is trusting her with a razor against his face. she scoots forward a little until she's between his legs, reaching up to hold his chin in one hand, tipping his face up toward the top of the tent. feeling sudden nerves burst awake in her belly, she takes a deep breath, licking her lips. this is fine, she'd done it probably hundreds of times with saw and she only cut him the one time.

even still she sets the razor down on the floor and cracks her knuckles against her thigh before she picks it up again. ]

When did they send you on your first mission? [ she'll start carefully shaving when he starts talking. ]

[evasives]

[oh. this is close. of course it's close, it's fine. he lets her maneuver his face, swallowing a little nervously. he's trusting her with a razor to his skin, at his jaw and near his neck. every instinct is telling him no, yet here he is. he does not look down at her mouth when she licks her lips, but it's a very near thing.]

[it takes him a second to answer, distracted by her fingers on his chin.]

What kind of mission? [he's been on lots.] First solo? First official? Test missions? Information runs? Group? I probably had a few different firsts.

[first assassination. first sabotage.]

[realists]

All of the above, [ jyn decides absently, finally touching the blade to his cheek. it slides down easily and brings with it some of the excess scruff. more than some.

she might have overestimated her ability to trim.

she says nothing, simply continues with the same pressure so at least it will be even when she is done. even and clean shaven, but there's still a faint shadow left behind, a dusting of grey against his jaw so she doesn't think it will stay clean shaven for very long. he'll survive. ]

[evasives]

You're cutting too close. [how can he tell?? it's a mystery, or maybe just familiarity with his face. good thing hair grows back.]

[he considers her question as she shaves though, feeling weirdly comfortable with the whole thing. the more she does it, the easier he feels.]

I would get sent on errands the first few years after the Alliance recruited me. Information drop offs, exchanges, packages I did not know the contents of. It was very similar to what I had been doing since I was a child on Fest.

Group probably ties into first official. It was a supply run. We raided an imperial storage facility. There were four of us. I was the youngest, fourteen or so. I found the inventory data doing some technical work, so they put me on board the mission itself.

[realists]

I can't change it now, you'd be lopsided. [ they're all just going to have to deal with him looking like a baby for a little bit. she wipes the razor off on the washcloth every so often, chewing on her lip in concentration as she continues across his cheeks and jaw. ]

You bought your way in with information. [ there's something amused in her tone, and unsurprised. ]

[evasives]

I told you I do not like it that close. [it's more of a mumble, the closest cassian has ever come to whining at her, but he knows he's stuck with it now.]

[he bites the side of his cheek to keep himself from smiling, but it doesn't hide it entirely. clever even as a stupid teenage boy.] I was very determined to get out there more. Do real work. They recruited me, it was the least they could do.

[how naive he was.]

[realists]

[ she doesn't like it this close either, bucko, but there is no turning back now. instead of snapping back at him she simply purses her lips and ignores it. she can't very well fix it, though she's already decided she won't do this again. next time he hurts his hand, she is dealing with a beard. ]

Especially since you were so bold and clever. [ maybe speaking from her own experience, who knows. ]

[evasives]

[he doesn't like being clean shaven because imperials tend to keep their faces smooth, though he supposes that's not... as big a deal here. even if he still doesn't like it!!]

But not reckless. [oh yeah he noticed that. and he is definitely teasing her while she has a razor to his face. self preservation and jyn never do seem to go hand in hand.]

The first time I went undercover I was seventeen. My first solo mission was about a year before that.