riverviewlogs

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who: Cassian Andor + ?
what: Cassian gets a feel for his new surroundings
when: June
where: The River & The Portal
warnings: Discussion of injuries.
notes: I am fine with brackets or prose replies in whatever tense suits you.

I. The River

[He had started his exploration on one of the inhabited banks of the river, following the shoreline at a slow pace. His ribs were still heavily bruised, and though they had released him from the hospital, they had recommended he return to his new housing and rest.

Rest wasn't something Cassian found easy, especially not when his mind was restless with possibilities and impossibilities alike.

He was searching the banks for signs of a ship stowed in bushes or behind buildings. A small jumper, perhaps, or a shuttle. Anything he could hi-jack so he could get up out of atmosphere and get his bearings better.

There was nothing, of course, but that hadn't stopped him yet. He had kept the change of clothes offered but shrugged his jacket on, through one arm and over the sling of the other, letting that side hang loose.

They had done a good job patching him up from his fall and the blaster shot he had taken, but the injuries were still healing and raw. He was in no condition to be out straining himself, his feet slipping left and right on wet rocks or sinking into the sand.

He had only been walking for ten minutes before he had to stop, breathing heavier than the short exertion should have forced him to, and resting his hand on a rock to keep steady.]

II. The Portal

[The overgrown landing in front of reality 5561A's contained Portal is almost as beautiful as it is ruined. The overgrowth and platform that stretch out in front of it gives the whole thing a feel like an ancient, lost civilization. It had taken much of his limited energy to reach the top of the steps, and once there he was left gazing at its surface from a safe distance. He knew better than to attempt to return through it, thanks to the city's helpful orientation. Even if he could have, Cassian doubted he would. The portal had ripped him away from Scarif just seconds before his death, and he was well aware of what had been waiting for him. He couldn't be sure how much of Scarif would be left, even if he did make it back.

He just knew there would be nothing left there for him.

But the portal itself was a technology unlike any he had experienced, and Cassian was drawn to the mystery of it, the unknowns behind it tugging at his mind the way loose threads of information always had.

He wasn't the only one drawn back to it, however. With a glance over toward his companion in what he assumed must be curiosity, he nodded his head toward the portal.]

Have you ever been here when something came through it?

III. The River

[A few hours later, Cassian is back down by the river, this time by the edge of the laser wall where the river leaves the quarantine and meanders down to the abandoned area. Determined though he had been to explore, he is aware of his limits. He needs to be in at least slightly better condition before he risks the moon's surface beyond the protective walls.

The sound of movement behind him startles him out of his observations. He turns too fast, taking in a sharp breath at the spike of pain the sudden shift causes. His fingers tighten on the blaster tucked under his jacket and he straightens, ignoring the pain to give the appearance of stability.]

Who's there?

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[ Jyn had seen him earlier, leaving the communal housing. She had almost called out to him, wanting to run over to him. But she stopped herself and instead ducked out of sight. Grabbing the kyber crystal pendant, she again wonders just how real any of this is. If she's actually dead and all of this is... Jyn isn't even sure what this would be. She still arrived dirty and with the scratches and bruises she had received from Scarif. Sand on her and the smell of the ocean very present on her clothes.

She doesn't recognize anyone else here until she spots Cassian from afar. She had stared after him, mouth agape before it finally processed it was him. She follows him somewhat, never getting close, knowing that he would pick up on someone following him. She just wanted to make sure he would still be there even if she lost sight of him. Because if she kept finding him time and again, that meant he was really there.

Somehow, that made the most sense in her mind. Out of everything she had been experiencing since arriving at this place.

After she sees him going back towards the river again, she decides it's time to approach him, heart feeling like it's going to beat right out of her chest. She's not sure why she's so nervous. He's real. He has to be.

Jyn manages well enough without drawing his attention. Until she makes the beginner's mistake of snapping a twig. She doesn't even have time to entertain the flash of annoyance that flares up in her because she can see him turning and address her. Or whomever he thinks has followed him. She swallows, throat clicking before she steps out of the trees and bushes, a few feet away from him but in clear view. Finally getting a good look at him, she can feel tears well in her eyes, feeling something in her chest unclench finally. ]

You're real.

[It takes him a moment of staring back at her, blinking away the mist from the river. She looks exactly like she had on the beach. The tension in his shoulders sags as soon as the words leave her. She voices his own thoughts from out of his head. She's not a medication or mist induced hallucination. She's real. He can see it in the ragged, rawness of her response and hear it in the roughness to her voice. He slowly drops his hand away from his concealed blaster.]

Jyn. [One word, but he says it with a sigh of relief, letting out a breath he had been holding in.]

Edited 2017-06-04 06:07 (UTC)

Cassian.

[ Voice still rough and feeling rougher when she's blinking her eyes rapidly, trying to clear her vision. Her feet are moving before she can process the movement and her arms find their way around his neck once she's close enough. Face pressed into his shoulder and holding him close.

This was how she last remembered: embracing each other with certain death rolling towards them. The difference was there was nothing coming towards them, there was no beach. Still not ready to let go, though. ]

[It's good her arms go around his neck and not his bruised and battered sides. He still winces imperceptibly when she wraps her arms around him and presses in close, but the pain is bearable and easy to ignore. His bad arm is trapped between him, and that's the source of most of his pain, but it doesn't stop him from wrapping his other arm around her and pulling her closer, his fingers curling slightly into the fabric at her shoulder.

She was real and solid, and aside from Poe's connections, the first real tie to their universe he's had evidence of. They were meant to be dead, and maybe they were, but Jyn was there, standing on the river bank with him on this strange planet. A single thread of familiarity in a universe of new possibilities.

He stands silent and still for a long while, holding onto her and staring past her at the trees and river beyond. No flash of emerald and white brightens the sky. The river continues to flow without the sound of stormtrooper boots charging down the shoreline. They're alone, and together. Was the portl really responsible, or had it been the Empire's superweapon?]

[ She stays like that for a good while, not even keeping track of how long. She just knows she needs to stay like that for as long as it takes to convince herself that they are alive and here. He's solid and warm against her. His heartbeat not merely some illusion.

When she finally speaks, her voice is still muffled against his shoulder, ]

I saw you earlier. I wasn't sure if you were real.

[ She's slowly pulling away then, looking up at him, ]

I haven't been able to tell if I'm alive or not. They say I am but...

[ But she didn't trust their words. ]

[He lets out a short, forced laugh at that, rolling his good shoulder when she pulls away and shaking his head. Whether he believes it or not, he's not letting her keep doubting, too. Not if he can dissuade her.]

I don't think death is meant to be so painful after the fact. [He carefully shifts his jacket to reveal the sling, though the worst of his injuries are impossible to see, hidden under his shirt.

He studies her a moment before clearing his throat.] We're alive. I don't know why, - [He theoretically knew how.] -but we are.

Jyn. They got the plans. [There's no longer a lack of surety to his voice, not even a forced assurance. He believed Poe, and he needed her to know with surety that she had not failed. She had finished what her father had started.]

[ She pulls away more when she sees his arm, taking in a small breath, shocked and then quickly regretting she had hugged him so tightly. She raises a hand to hover over the sling, shaking her head, ]

I didn't mean to--

[ But she's cut off by his words, looking back up at him, brow furrowing in confusion. Does he mean... ]

...what? How do you--how do you know?

Don't worry about it. [He's quick to dismiss her concern. The pain was something he was used to and easy enough to push out of his mind. If it had been damaging he would have stopped her. He didn't.]

There's a pilot here. He's from- It's complicated. [He doesn't know if he wants to delve into the timeline issues just yet.]

The point is, he knew what we had done, knew about the plans. He told me the Rebellion destroyed the planet killer - the Death Star. Your father's scheme worked.

[ Her brow creases more at that and seems a bit taken aback. She had hoped it had worked. Had hoped that with all her heart. But to hear it really had... ]

But how is that even possible?

[ And then, thinking back on the portal, the next train of thought comes through in a tentative connection, still not sure how it could be possible. He's from another time? It's the only possibility if it's the truth and yet she still forms it as a question in her own mind because it's almost laughable in how absurd it is. ]

This doesn't make any sense, Cassian. Are you sure he's telling the truth? About any of it?

More certain than I have been of much in a long time. [ He was confident he had read Poe well. The man was earnest and convicted. He had that fresh rebel face with eyes that hinted he had already seen and lived through a good deal in the new war. Cassian believed him, and that unsettled him more than the possibility he was being fed a lie.]

I knew his father. He's a grown man, and he wasn't even born at the time we were fighting. Think about where you were before you wound up here.

[The hug is enough to tell him exactly when that was, within a tiny range of minutes.]

If it could drag us here in the middle of that, the power it must be capable of- it starts to seem like far less of a stretch.

[Look at me He wants to say. I shouldn't even be alive. But he doesnt want either of them dwelling on the possibility that this moon is an afterlife more than they already are.]

[ She watches him as he talks, seeing that he truly believes what he's saying. Believes this person. She hasn't known him long but she knows Cassian doesn't give such weight to everyone. Jyn takes in a deep breath and slowly lets it out, looking away and watching the river beside them without seeing it.

That moment she had been in was still very much with her. Sent her heart racing and mind freezing up when she thought of going back to it. If she wasn't already dead.

Your father's scheme worked.

She closes her eyes as she feels her chest tighten painfully at the memory of her father. Quietly, ]

I'm glad someone really was listening.

[ Even if a part of her still wants to be skeptical of this source, Cassian has a good point. And she still wants to believe they had succeeded now as much as she did then. ]

[Cassian had his own suspicions, but there was something to the caliber of person Poe was, and the look in his eyes. He had spent his life around the shiftiest liars and manipulators in the galaxy. Poe was either the best he had ever met, or an honest man. Both options unsettled him.

She closes her eyes, and he throws his arms loosely around her shoulders to pull her closer. She seemed unsteady from the revelation, and he couldn't blame her.]

So am I. [Maybe he could spare her the details of the new war for longer than he had managed to avoid knowing about it.]

Either these people or that portal pulled us out of there. There's a chance- [A slim, impossible, optimistic chance he didn't dare to really look too deeply into.] they say they can send us back. [He didn't plan on trying, though. How could he go back to Draven after everything that had happened? He couldn't even trust his own judgement anymore, let alone go back to his old work.]

[ Not curiosity so much as research. Well, sure, curiosity played a part in it, but then that was a good portion of his work, being a surveyor and all. He hadn't spent a lot of his time so far studying the portal either, mostly because he lacked the technology from back home to do so, but he had managed to procure a scanner and a compact computing device close enough to a PADD that should allow him to collect and analyze some data.

He'd consider himself lucky if the portal pulled something through while he was there, honestly, but he wasn't holding his breath. ]

Not really. I wish, though. [ He lowered his scanner, glancing at his current company. ] New around here?

[Cassian spared the scanner a glance before turning his gaze back to the portal. He was standing at an angle that let him keep Kirk in the corner of his eye, and that was enough to keep the prickle of anticipation from climbing up the back of his neck.

He was meant to be taking it easy, he just didn't know how to.]

Fresh out by a few days. Just trying to get a feel for how this place works. [A little bit of honesty to spark the conversation. He was still finding his footing, and while he didn't want to go back, he did wonder if anyone else had come through. Obviously Poe, but he was from a different time.]

Just wondering if it's possible, if they think they can send people back, they might be able to pull other people in.

Intentionally, I mean. [Part paranoia, part hope.]

[ Jim could tell the guy didn't plan on letting him out of his sight, but all things considered, he couldn't really hold it against him. So long as he wasn't planning on jumping at him out of the blue, Jim had no intentions of doing anything sudden or presenting himself as a threat either. ]

It's peaceful, generally speaking. [ He meant that. He'd been plenty suspicious at times but so far he found no reason to think the people here were being anything but honest. Of course he wouldn't rule out the hypothesis that this might well all be one big trap or a prison of sorts, but he was yet to find anything to leave him feeling worried or unsettled. ]

It might be possible, but they might not have that level of knowledge when it comes to the portal's technology so far. Or it could just work like a— a phone call. They can connect from here to another point in another galaxy or universe, but for the reverse to happen, the connection has to be established from the other end.

[He listened in silence while Jim spoke, his hand finding purchase on the stones as he leaned into one of the crumbling walls, letting himself find ease in the press of something solid at his back.]

It is an impressive piece of technology. [He refused to believe it was natuarally ocurring. Things like that just didn't pop into existence. He couldn't let himself believe it or any semblance of order to the galaxy would shatter for him.]

Maybe for the best. I'd sooner see this galaxy for myself and try to find my own way back then chance another trip through it. I'd prefer to be at the controls of my ships than deposited at random and stranded on unknown planets and moons.

That it definitely is. [ They were on the same boat in that aspect. Jim had trouble believing that such a concentrated and specific phenomenon could occur naturally. It wasn't that the portal dragged anything or anyone through. So far he had noticed remarkable similarities between those that came here from other worlds. Humanoid, capable of speech and writing, similar basic development and evolution. That couldn't just be a random coincidence. ]

Provided you can even get your hands on a ship around here. [ Not an easy feat, or else Jim wouldn't be here, with his feet firmly on the ground. ] I take it deep space travel isn't a foreign concept to you, either.

No. It's more a way of life. [He had spent more time in the black of space than on any one planet or moon.]

So far it seems like there's no chance of that until we're at least cleared from quarantine. But there have to be ships somewhere. [And if he could find one, he would feel no qualms at taking it.]

Being grounded is doing nothing to help ease the restless feeling in my bones.

[ Jim's lips quirked a little at that, nodding lightly in genuine understanding. ] Pretty much, yes.

[ Same thing for him, really. He had never felt quite as settled and at home as he did on board his ship, sailing across the stars. Well, save for this place, maybe. Oddly enough he had settled down a lot since coming here, and he didn't feel nearly as restless or bored as he thought he would, but he would hop onto a starship without a second thought, if one were to show up here somehow. ]

I think... there might have been, once. The first people to set up this quarantine must've arrived here that way. But I don't think it'll be as easy as looking around and finding a ship completely intact and ready to take off.

[ It did make him wonder if there weren't any ships down on the actual planet rather than its moon, but clearly the natives weren't in any rush to send them one. ]

Gets easier with time. Having people around helps, too. [ He glanced at the other man. ] You have anyone else here with you? From your world, I mean.

[ It goes without saying the river that cuts through the city is an impressive one—and impossible to miss. Likewise new to the city, Yuuto decides to take his exploration of Riverview down the bank once he stumbles upon it, curious as to what new sights it'll take him to.

A man struggling to move wasn't what he was expecting to come across, however, but that's eventually what he walks on to. Yuuto watches only briefly before he approaches. ]

—Here. [ He offers the man a hand. ] Wanna find a better place to sit?

[He doesn't jolt, but Cassian stiffens at the voice before turning to look at Yuuto and forcing himself to relax. He takes the young man's hand, his uninjured arm forward, and get back onto his feet properly.]

There's a felled log just over there. That will do for now,

[He nodded in the direction of the fallen tree near the bank, studying him for a moment before adding-] Thank you.

[If Yuuto wants to help him over to it, Cassian will let him, focusing on keeping his footing on the uneven shoreline of the riverbank.]

[ And help he will; the distance is short, so aiding is little issue, even if the walk is slow. ]

It's nothing—you looked like you were about to fall. [ Which would have been its own set of problems. ] How hurt are you?

I'll live. [He gives a short, rough laugh before taking his seat on the tree with a groan. Maybe he was pushing himself too hard, but he was going mad sitting idle.]

Are you from this moon?

[ Not for long if he keeps this up, Yuuto thinks wryly to himself. He manages to keep his nose from wrinkling, at least, instead idling nearby the log. ]

Nope, it's my first time on the moon. [ A pause, then: ] On any moon.

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man of many words

she's not much better

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