( 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 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.

[realists]

Reckless doesn't suit you, [ jyn murmurs as if she has considered the trait in relation to cassian. siding with her, not his finest moment. but she likes the calculative way his mind works, the way he can see all the ways a plan can fail and plans for the failures. it complements her recklessness. ]

Who were you the first time?

[ he knows so much about her, at least through her file and information about her parents and saw, surface things admittedly, but she still knows so little about him. ]

[evasives]

It does not go well with intelligence work. [he had to be cool and collected under pressure. clever and bold, but in a smart way. jyn is reckless, but cassian is figuring out how to channel her impulsiveness. they're a good team. they were from the start.]

[much like the blade on his skin goes against everything he abides by, talking about himself does too. but he does it anyway. he's never gotten to just... talk about himself before.] His name was Avin Vendar. I got a job using some Alliance contacts in an imperial mining facility.

[realists]

[ she cleans up one side with the washcloth, studying her work, catching a few stray hairs and correcting, before she turns his face the other direction, offering a brief smile for the moment they're looking at each other. she tamps it down quickly as she starts in on the otherside with the same steady pressure. she is exceedingly careful but there is an ease that speaks to just how many times she's been sat in front of someone with a razor in hand.

it also becomes clear that when she is done with both sides cassian will briefly have a goatee before she takes care of that as well. ]

On what planet? [ she knows of very few mining operations frankly, but she remembers a handful that idryssa told them about, vague memories of nari and her mother deep in discussion while has entertained her by his joyful study of the contents of her backpack. lack of knowledge doesn't temper her curious nature. ]

Maybe we could have run into each other. [ as if she frequented mining planets. ]

[evasives]

[however brief, he hoards it and offers one in return. she's already finished one side; the way she turns his face feels like she's been doing this for him for years while still being so new. which is probably their entire relationship, if he's being honest.]

Alabash. Very volcanic. The Empire used it to mine alantium, a component used in starship hulls.

[she's very careful, and even if she went closer than he likes, she also very much knows what she's doing. her fingers are cold on his skin, but they're always cold. the chill up his spine is clearly just a result of the actual chill, nothing else.]

[briefly, he wonders how many planets they could have run into each other on. there are so many out there, too many, it's an impossible scenario, but it doesn't stop him from being drawn into the idea regardless.] I have been to many others. Sabotaging mines or stirring unrest in miners is quite easy, granted you arrive at the right moment.

[realists]

Sometimes stirring unrest only makes them sink their heads down further.

[ she remembers akshaya refusing to believe the empire would ever come for a tiny planet like theirs, ignoring the unrest like if she pretended it wasn't there it would simply go away on its own.

it didn't. ]

Some people refuse to accept a war is coming until the destroyers are overhead and even then... [ her shoulders lift in a shrug. she's heard the phrase ignorance is bliss but she hasn't been that privileged since she was a little girl. ]

[evasives]

It depends on the planet.

Intelligence would often send in agents to assess the situation. Some people are ready to fight back, they just don't have a means. Maybe they cannot organize. Maybe they don't have resources.

[he did a lot of recruiting that way. he would bring people into the cause, whether it was simply a means of becoming a channel to the larger movement or through various levels of manipulation. but he certainly helped plan a lot of acts of resistance among ground organizations. he's had plenty of experience in smaller cells.]

And yes, sometimes they would rather keep their head down and stay alive. There's no telling until we had eyes on the ground. If we needed a facility taken out, we would do so even without local assistance.

There is no blanket strategy for it.

[realists]

[ she hums thoughtfully, seemingly content to just listen to him talk for a while. she'd always enjoyed sitting in the corner when people would come see saw to talk about their options. ]

You blew up mines? [ she pauses, mouth slanted in a faint smirk. how many of those explosions, she wonders, were blamed on saw? how many did he happily take credit for regardless? the world will never know.

anyway talk dirty to her, cassian. ]

[evasives]

[her smirk does funny things to his chest, though there are tons of other factors at play that probably don't help, like her hands all over his face. but also, of fucking course she hones in on the more explosive sabotage.]

[he huffs out a very quiet and quick laugh.] On occasion. Sometimes personally, sometimes I just... pushed the miners to do it themselves.

Sometimes we had to make it look like an accident. Sometimes we let Gerrera take the credit. Accidents were more common though, especially if we were trying to avoid an Imperial crackdown.