riverviewlogs | ( open ) slow i'm getting up

Entry tags:

( open ) slow i'm getting up

who: Cassian Andor + open!
what: rebel spy poorly adjusts to civilian life
when: mid september?? whatever is convenient
where: various! multi-choice.
warnings: will edit as necessary!

i. perimeter guard

[cassian has gone beyond the wall a handful of times by now, but he has yet to stay more than one night. when he's at the headquarters, he hangs out in the hangar, poking around at the transit, or with the maps, pouring over them very meticulously. sometimes he's hunched over his own map, adding details or working on a copy to keep. survey work is easy enough, because surveillance is key to being a spy. he's got a very good memory.]

[other times he's sorting through a haul of old scraps and pieces of technology he managed to pull in, figuring out what can be fixed, what needs to be tossed, and what can be reused. it's all sorted into three distinct piles, and once in a while he tinkers with some of it, trying to make it work again.]

K2, what do you - [oh. no. wait. it's instinct to just ask his droid for technical opinions, but he cuts himself off and his entire expression darkens while he turns his screwdriver a little too aggressively.]

ii. perimeter guard redux

[he's very prepared for monsters in the sense of combat experience. most of his life, however, has been spent fighting people not beasts. cassian is meant for stealth; he's a sniper, an assassin, an informant, and his kills tend to happen quickly and quietly.]

[of course this one happens when he's alone, having separated for about an hour from jyn to cover more ground, though he hasn't gone too far from the wall. he'd shot it from afar and knocked it out, but it hadn't been alone; the companion zeroes in on cassian's location as he switches his blaster from stun to kill, any sense of invisibility lost when he fired the gun the first time. great good monster times all around.]

iii. how do you food

[grocery shopping is bizarre. cassian has lived essentially his whole life off rations or basic levels of food (sometimes even whatever he could snag on the streets). he was fed appropriately enough, but the Rebellion hadn't exactly been brimming with fine cuisine. the stores here sometime feel like too many options. he spends more time staring at the choices before picking the least flashy, unable to break the habit. he also piles his basket with enough food for two people, a habit he's picked up in the month or so he's been here.]

[he's keeping a very cool and collected facade, but there are probably little signs of uncertainty that should not belong to someone who's just browsing through a grocery store. frowning at perishable packages and the rainbow of juices, squinting at labels warily. he may also have an obscene amount of water bottles. you can never have too much!]

[he's perpetually grumpy at nearly every box he picks up to read over ingredients.] These percentages are far too precise. How is this necessary?

iv. how do you escape hypercompetency

[the perimeter guard keeps him busy, but cassian hasn't stopped reflecting on what jyn said weeks ago, how he doesn't have to be a spy here anymore. there is no one to report to, no war on his heels, but the habits don't die out even when he tries to remind himself otherwise.]

[he goes to the library and tries to find books for leisure, but ends up looking between the shelves to see who else is there, skimming the titles belonging to the person sitting next to him. he takes out too many because this is a luxury at least he can share, and some of the books he picks aren't really leisure.]

[every time he turns a corner inside a building or out on the street, he looks around in a very calculative way. he steps around people and weaves through crowds too easily, turning over his shoulder to make sure none of them noticed him. paranoia doesn't sit well with civilian life.]

[he often goes for a run in the mornings, stretching it further each day to keep testing the strength of his leg and spine. sometimes it becomes too much and he has to rest on a bench, practically chugging his water as he watches the people slip by him. he catalogues them without realizing, huffing out a sigh.]

[he really doesn't know how to turn it off.]

Maybe I need a hobby. [muttering to himself is not a good hobby.]

v. wildcard!

[make up your own or hit me up: communism @ plurk, romanitas#5368 @ discord, pm this journal.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She spends most of her time out past the perimeter. She's not really... comfortable around people anymore, not for long periods of time. Taako's place (her place) is a bit of a haven in an otherwise fucked up bubble of humanity, but even it gets stifling sometimes.

James gets it. So does Taako, though for different reasons. Clark used to, but she's trying not to think about Clark these days.

--He left too. Not his fault, but it's just one more person gone from her life, and dealing with that has been. It's been--

Well. She's out here for a reason.

Her beretta is tucked in her jeans, she's got a rifle slung over one shoulder. She's quiet about it, not really looking for a monster hunt but not planning on running away from one either when she hears the crack of that weird fucking gun. She flings herself flat, not having the first fucking clue where the shot even came from, and lifts her head just enough to see what's going on a couple hundred yards away.

There's a guy engaged in a fight with one of the monsters. No superpowers that she can tell, though that doesn't mean much. She chews on her lip, trying to decide what to do. He looks like he can handle himself, so-- you know, whatever. You do you, dude. Ellie is not really a fan of the whole 'strangers' thing (wayyyy less so in the middle of nowhere) so she actually kind of pushes herself up on her knees and then starts inching backwards.

Except.

While he's busy trying to fend off the one tooth-and-claw motherfucker, there's another one (looks more like a cougar, except, you know... monster-y) that's decided to creep up on him from behind, and while Ellie is a lot of things she's not actually an asshole. Most of the time.

She's also not dumb enough to yell to get its attention, so she just unslings the rifle from her shoulder very slowly, lifts it up against her shoulder. Steadies it the way Joel (she's not thinking about Joel, either) showed her. Exhales. Squeezes the trigger. The recoil is little more than a punch to the shoulder, and the shot's a good one. The cat-thing drops like a rock. Cool. Mission accomplished.

Now the real question is, can she get the fuck out of dodge before the guy even notices she was here? Time to try it.]

[cassian hears the surprise third monster before he sees it; he takes a shot at the one rushing him, before turning around just in time to see the cat-beast drop, presumably from the shot he hears seconds prior.]

[he spares a quick glance in the direction it must have come from, but first he needs to get rid of the pest he's merely grazed so far. he fires another round, hitting it twice in the chest where it finally stumbles over and dies with a screeching wail. he keeps his gun trained on it, making sure it doesn't get another twitch of life, but when he's satisfied it's actually dead, cassian immediately looks back towards whoever it was that came to his aid.]

[they're far enough that he wouldn't be able to chase them down, kind of small in stature. he's torn between getting their attention or just letting them disappear, but he supposes it was their kill. maybe they want it.]

[only he doesn't want to yell and draw anymore attention to himself from any other monsters, so he just lifts his arm in a wave to signify he saw them. a pseudo thank you.]

[it was a very nice shot. he would know. sorry if they wanted to slip away unnoticed or anything of the sort :)]

[She hesitates.

Now that he's seen her, if she runs... well, he might feel like tracking her down later. If he's going to do that, she wants the actual measure of this guy first. She's past the point of thinking that everyone here is, you know, a horrible cannibal fuck (which is basically her high bar for Awful Human) but she's still mighty suspicious.

She waves back, her jaw set. Then, grudgingly-- what would Clark do? She hikes her rifle higher up on her shoulder and starts to trudge towards the guy. Might as well.]

[he's a little surprised when she starts to head over (a girl, he thinks as the distances closes up), but he's not about to ignore her. he pokes around at the dead monsters, trying to see if there's anything of value worth taking off them, but he might have to wait for jyn to get back depending on the haul of it.]

[cassian lowers his blaster as the girl gets closer. he doesn't want to come across as hostile, but he's not about to holster it up again when three beasts just tried to kill him. his leg aches a little from landing a little too hard on it, but it's nothing a quick rest won't solve.]

[corpses for company, great??]

[by the time the girl is close enough for him to pick out features, he frowns, because she really doesn't look that old, but she clearly knows how to handle her guns. then again, it's not like he didn't at that age. he stands with the slightest tilt to favor one leg, barely noticeable.]

Nice shot.

[She shrugs, a rather heavy-handed deflection of the compliment.]

Who says I wasn't aiming for you?

[A few months ago maybe she'd have sounded hostile about that. Now it's almost a joke. But it's a Thing with her, she likes to push people (guys, mostly, older than her, dark hair--) just enough they know not to fuck with her.]

[deflection, so maybe not the best way to open things. he probably should have known better, considering how it felt for people to tell him the same thing once upon a time.]

[cassian offers his own shrug, his more careless.]

No point in wasting a bullet on me when the monster would have done the job for you.

[he recognizes it's kind of a joke too, which is why is tone almost matches hers. he doesn't sound condescending, more an easy-matter-of-fact.]

[She steps around him without turning her back on him, to toe at one of the dead animals. It was the right thing to say, in any case. She doesn't relax, but she gives him a wry, crooked grin.]

I figure you probably had it mostly handled anyway. Mostly.

[he doesn't miss the way she moves, mostly because he's used to seeing it from his agents and soldiers as well as himself. but hey, at least he didn't fuck up the conversation again! it's a strange line between trying to be honest and trying to steer it well.]

Sans the injuries I would have gotten from the claws. [he is smart enough to realize taking out the cat monster would have left him temporarily vulnerable to getting clawed up.] I can be glad to skip a trip to the medbay.

[She hrmphs softly, the gesture making her shoulders lift a bit in amusement.]

I'm Ellie.

[Look, she'll even hold out a hand in case he. Does that sort of shaking thing.]

[he's a little surprised by the gesture, but he's not about to completely deny it. he keeps his grip firm, but not tight enough for her to feel trapped by it, and he lets her go fairly quickly.]

Cassian. Are you on the guard?

[do they let teenagers on it?? that's the real point to his question.]

Nnnnnope.

[The handshake is quick, but her gesture is firm. Her hands are calloused and rough, dirty nails, abraded knuckles galore. She's cleaner than she was back home by a long shot, when it was weeks on the road sometimes without any access to water at all, but she doesn't really bother keeping herself up to the standards of 'modern' society.]

Just out doing my thing. Big wilderness fan, you know how it is.

[The monsters make sense out here. They're recognizable. Killable. Makes it easier.]

[given all the small things he thinks he's gleaned about ellie already, her hands don't surprise him at all. his own have their fair share of callouses, and he's so used to them he forgets most of the time.]

Do you live out here? Or just more of a frequent visitor?

[his tone is curious, like he's not going to try and persuade her one way or the other. he's definitely not, but he's very careful to convey that in his voice.]

[She used to be cagey about this, but she lives with Taako and she trusts that nothing is getting into their house if he doesn't want it to. Not only that, but she has her own individual room that's booby-trapped to fuck so she's really not. Worried.]

Visitor.

[She gives him a pointed look.]

Not that it's really any of your business. [It's said affably enough, but it's a clear warning for him to stop prying. More casually,] What about you?

[he raises an eyebrow.] No one said you needed to answer me.

[cassian gets the message loud and clear, but it doesn't mean he won't keep it light even as he stops outright prying.]

I live behind the wall, not out here. The bed is nicer.

Oh, I know. And if you were even faintly pinging my creep-o-meter I'd probably have told you to fuck off by now.

[Concessions, and all. Ellie doesn't have much of a filter where this sort of thing is concerned. But she does gesture vaguely with one hand.]

And it depends on what you're looking for in a bed.

[You know, sometimes the privacy is worth a scrapheap in the middle of a copse of trees.]

I have no doubt about that. [he doesn't seem concerned at all about a lack of filter. if anything, he'd be more concerned about her seeming combat experience, but even that just sort of makes him bitter about the multiple galaxies more than anything else.]

Anything can be a bed if you set your mind to it. [he rolls his shoulder in a shrug.] A mattress is always welcome.

[plus his room rn is hella private, it works for him.]

[That gets a bit of a laugh, and she shakes her head.]

Fair point. So what's with the lurking? [She's calling it lurking, Cassian, you just seem like a lurker.] Just out for a walk?

[well ok, the laugh is good! a far cry from the complete and utter reluctance with which she walked over to him. not that he's figured out his endgame here yet, but!]

I am on the guard. Apparently lurking out here is part of the job.

[he is definitely a lurker.]

[She makes a vague, disinterested noise. Maybe if she'd stayed in Boston, by the time military prep kicked her out they would have tried to put her on border patrol. Not like it's the same situation, but it sort of leaves a bad taste in her mouth just the same.

Seems like the administrative assholes in charge of this place need something to do with people that are fighters or... whatever, though, since that seems to be where most of them end up. He handled his weird little gun well enough, so she's probably not wrong there.]

Keeping the rest of us safe, right.

[Her tone's a bit wry.]

[oh she does not sound like she is very fond of the guard. there are plenty of reasons for that to be the case though, so he doesn't bother asking after it.]

I am a surveyor, with salvage and repair. I do more wandering than fighting when I am out here, save the occasional monster.

[it's easier than the work he used to do, and it keeps him busy enough while still being a break from murder.]

[It doesn't really make any difference to her. People need walls. Walls need guards. It makes sense to her, she just doesn't like the people that take advantage of the power.]

Oh yeah? You like it?

[Now she's just making idle conversation. Despite all outward appearances, Ellie is still a people person at the end of the day. The human connection... sometimes it's all that matters.]

[cassian is not particularly used to genuine small talk. small talk towards an end goal, yes, but he always turns the conversation towards the other person to avoid talking about himself. the fact that he could talk about himself now is odd - not that he wants to. but he could.]

It keeps me busy. There are worse jobs to be had. Do you like being out here?

Edited 2017-09-24 17:36 (UTC)

[She studies him a moment, not terrible subtle about it. Then she blows her bangs out of her face with a huff.]

More than I like being in the city.

[It's sort of a disarming honesty. It's something in her arsenal, but she doesn't use it all the time. If you're upfront with people, they don't think to dig any deeper.]

It's not bad, it's just-- you know. Crowded.

[she's looking at him very carefully, and he remembers he hates being under a microscope. still, he's surprised when she answers him, given how cagey she was until now. maybe she just likes people more than he does.]

Let me guess, the monsters don't ask as many questions. [this is not a self call out! it's making lighter of the topic, which she seems to appreciate.]

[It gets a laugh.]

Wow. That transparent, huh? Guess I should work on that one.

[But there's no bite to it, or rancor. It was the right move on his part. Ellie always functions best when you can add a little levity.]

( open ) slow i'm getting up

ii; come on and slam

and welcome to the jam

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