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

The word droid feels more sentient. [he agrees, basically.]

[he also agrees that a grocery store is a terrible place for a conversation like this. it's been pretty surface level so far, but if cassian wants more, he knows it'll be betters some place quieter. less eavesdroppers.]

We can. [he runs through a handful of possible locations. he still wants something more public, but nothing drowning in people.] There are plenty of parks or similar to choose from.

Do you have a name?

Droid...it has a better connection to home. [Their world, the place they're from. Not to Jakku, but to their overall universe. Something that keeps them grounded and separated from everyone else.]

A park would be fine. I'm still exploring this place. I arrived not too long ago. [And how odd it is for her to say that without feeling...weird about it. Like she's slowly adapting to this place and coming to terms with the entire thing. Like, arriving here was normal when clearly it wasn't.]

My name is Rey. [No surname, no affiliation to anyone. At least, not yet. Not unless she had found Luke and he agreed to train her...but now she'll never know.]

You?

They don't seem to exist in the same capacity elsewhere. [it's such a small difference, robots vs droids, but he feels like k2 would scoff at being called a simple robot.]

Even the people who have been here long are always seeming to find new things. [good job being vague as fuck in that, cassian. at least it implies he's been here a little longer than her.]

[there's the briefest of pause over his name, because even now he still finds it strange to be free to give it.] Cassian. I would like to finish my shopping first, but it should not take much longer.

Yes, I've noticed that.

[Robot was too simple. A droid could do so much more than mere simple tasks. BB-8 would happily beep to that.]

Which means a lot of people don't understand binary. [Which would be interesting if a droid ever wound up here, how people would react to it.

She does notice the hesitation over to give his name. It makes her wonder if his name carries some danger to it, or some other sort of weight. Cassian. She tries to remember recalling of that name, but nothing comes to mind.]

No, I didn't mean to interrupt. I could meet you at the park in an hour? Or two? [She needed to finish her shopping too, and not get distracted by the different things they have here.]

Even back home, binary was not the most common outside droids. [cassian understands little bits and pieces, but he always had k2 around to translate.]

[names are a tool more often than not; he's slowly getting used to the idea of only being himself, without worry of blowing a cover.]

An hour is fine. [it gives him enough time to finish without giving him an abundance of time to deliberate between more choices.] There's a park near the communal housing that may work.

It's helpful to know, just in case. [Helpful to know a lot of other languages, to know if you're being swindled or not. It was an advantage that came in handy for Rey.

There's a nod of her head. She knows which park he's referring to. It gave them enough time to complete their shopping and return home to put their groceries away.]

I'll meet you there.

[Rey grabs one last item and starts to pull away.] I'll see you soon, Cassian.

[There's a small nod of her head rather than a wave or a smile as she moves away from him to check out and head back to the communal housing.

It wouldn't be long until their hour was up and she was waiting around the park.]

[he doesn't really say his own vocal goodbye, just nods both agreement to the meeting and as a short farewell as she slips away.]

[the time limit allows him to make quicker decisions about food, piling the basket full and making his way back to his apartment. he drops the groceries off and briefly wakes up jyn from a nap to tell her he's going out again to meet someone, then leaves before she can breach consciousness enough to question him.]

[once the hour passes, he makes his way to the park too, fairly quickly finding rey loitering. instead of calling out or waving, he just starts walking over in her line of sight so she can see him coming. he does a quick scan of the area in habit, but he'd already cased the area enough to know it the very first time he was here.]

[cassian does, at least, nod at her once they make eye contact.]

[Rey wouldn't say she was loitering around. Rather, it was either stand by a tree, wander around, or attempt to sit on a bench or on the grass. She felt the need to keep moving, something she was so used to from her old life. Always on the move, scavenging for parts, then cleaning them, and possibly repairing them before taking them to Unkar Plutt. There was some stability and comfort in her old routine, and now she didn't have that.

What she would have, hopefully, would be the chance to talk to someone else from her world. Someone who either was closer to her time or maybe sooner? It didn't seem like he was from the same period as Obi-Wan, who claimed the Jedi to still be around during his time...really, the notion was a bit confusing, but it leaves her mind when he steps into her line of vision. There's a nod of acknowledgment from her, the staff she had was still slung over one shoulder.

It didn't matter to her if it was a full hour or not. She was simply glad he was here.]

Where do you want to begin?

[Where they were from--or when? What they knew or what they were willing to share?]

[he takes note of her staff, sparing a passing moment to the blaster tucked inside his own clothes. he rarely goes anywhere unarmed, and it seems apparent rey is the same way.]

It's almost difficult to pick a place.

[there's a lot he wants to know and ask, but firstly, as cassian, he wants to figure out for sure whether she's friend or foe. he's leaning towards the former, at least in the sense of getting zero imperial vibes.]

Do you know what a stormtrooper is?

[there. that's potentially good question to get a wide range of answers from!]

[For a moment, Rey just stares at Cassian. Her eyes blinking once then twice. It's such a simple question. Really, it was, but it spoke volumes.]

Yes, I do. [There's a faint smile on her face because it feels like a step in the right direction. One question that could lead to dozens more, but it could lead to a plethora of answers.]

They're not fun when they're blasting at you. [A small way to let him know she wasn't with them without going into too many details.]

Do you know of the First Order?

[he watches every single part of her response, from her eyes to her shoulders to her words and the tone of them, looking for - anything. he's trying not to go into this with preconceived notions.]

[she knows what stormtroopers are and doesn't seem to be a fan. there's nothing to suggest she's lying, but caution is a friend.]

No. [he doesn't like the sound of it, but his expression keeps neutral through the uncertainty.] But the Empire has their New Order, just like they use their troopers to terrorize the galaxy.

[ok well straight up razing the empire will probably get him more on her thoughts. also he's already dead, fuck the empire who cares.]

[Caution is a friend to both of them. One couldn't just assume anything right off the bat. Yes, she could have faith in people, but she knew better to blindly trust someone. It was about survival, and normally she would be more tight lipped with her answers, but it felt great to meet someone on the same page.

Or...so she thought. Her face falls ever so slightly hearing he didn't know about the First Order. So...he was from the dark days of the Empire. But that was better than being too far into the past. Well, beggars couldn't be choosers in this place.]

Nothing good came from the Empire, but they were defeated.

[She looked straight at Cassian when she told him. Her face and voice filled with confidence. This, she wouldn't lie about. Just...for now, she wouldn't touch upon the First Order.]

[the words would be a comfort if he had any further proof for the truth of them. it's good to think his death meant something, that someone was listening like jyn promised. there's no sign she's lying; rey sounds very sure of her answer, certain that the empire is gone, but it's almost too good to imagine.]

[he bristles, internally. but he has to ask.]

What of the Death Star?

Destroyed.

[The word comes out softly, but strongly. She knows the Empire caused so much havoc and pain in the galaxy. The details of how the Death Star was destroyed were a bit fuzzy. The stories that were told were few and far between, only that Luke Skywalker--the Jedi, had a hand in it. The he, Leia, and Han, helped destroy it.

Rey wants to say more, but, she won't. Cassian doesn't need to know of Star Killer Base--a bigger and deadlier version of the Death Star. She doesn't want to cause him pain, like she did with Obi-Wan. The Jedi...she still had to talk to him, and she would...eventually.]

The war wasn't immediately over after the destruction of the Death Star, but eventually the Empire fell.

[destroyed.]

[oh, how much he wants to believe that. to know for sure that rogue one's mission meant something, that it helped the galaxy. even if he struggles to believe the empire truly gone after such a long fight, knowing the exploitable weakness of the death star makes it's ruin feel more attainable.]

[some of the heaviness seems to fly away from his shoulders.]

Do you know how it happened? To the Death Star. I know the war would not be so easily won with just one battle.

[There's a shake of her head. As badly as she wanted to know, it wasn't like the smugglers, thieves and other scavengers on Jakku were willing to talk more about the Empire. They only told bits and pieces, and Rey wasn't about to ask for more details when she should've been working.]

The bits and pieces I heard were that the Death Star had a weakness that was leaked to the Rebellion, and then it was destroyed. In the destruction of the Death Star, it set the Empire back but them and the Rebellion continued to go at it until the war was eventually won by the Rebellion.

[Only for something else to happen and...yeah. It's still an on going thing.]

Were you part of the Rebellion? [Considering how invested he in this talk, it seemed that way... Or, maybe his home planet had become one of the fighting grounds for the Empire. Jakku was loitered with different Imperial ships from their fight so many years ago.]

[a weakness. it's a good phrase for two things: more proof that rey has zero ties to the empire, because they'd never dare use it, and that the weakness was what allowed the death star's destruction in the first place.]

[it's not a very descriptive how, but exploitable weakness is what the entirety of rogue one gave up their lives for. the rebellion used it. it helps knowing the outcome, even in a vague sense.]

[the way she says were you suggests she wasn't part of the rebellion herself, but at least she's sympathetic towards them.]

Yes. [wowow that's weird to allow admittance to.] How did you come to know so much yourself, if you were not part of it?

[it's a question that could get a lot of other ones answered in one go.]

[ Rey's eyes widen with wonder and a little excitement. There were very few fighters in the Resistance that had seen the days of the Rebellion. Lewis was one of them. But, Cassian isn't someone she remembers on the base. So he....he gave his life? Or, maybe he retired? It was hard to tell and harder to not ask. ]

Because it's still talked about, albeit in whispers here and there. Jakku was part of a battleground, different Imperial ships litter the sands. [ And she made her home from an old AT-AT Walker. ]

As I said....it's been years since the Empire fell. Enough time for the fighters to have families and have children who are most likely my age.

[ Possibly older or younger but that's the best way to explain it. Rey didn't recall what year it was when she was on the Resistance base. ]

[rey look like she's about twenty. the war being over and empire being gone for two decades is almost unfathomable. he would have been at least in his forties.]

[his whole life was fighting the empire; what would he have done in those years after it? would k2 be there? jyn? he shoves that aside, because he doesn't want to think about what it would have been like to live.]

It's a relief to know the Rebellion is victorious in the end. [and he'll process that after this conversation too. right now it's compartmentalization time!] Though from where I left off, Jakku had not really been on the radar. Were you there during that battle?

[Nineteen, but close to twenty. She's watching Cassian's face to see if he's happy, elated maybe? Or confused? She wasn't able to give him much information, because she herself didn't know much. Granted, she could've talked to Leia about the Rebellion, but there were other pressing matters. Ben--Kylo Ren killing Han, and finding the map to Luke...and then sending her off to find Luke. Finn needing medical attention.

A soft smile plays on her lips.]

Yes, I don't know what would've happened if the Empire had won.

[She may not have been born, or the Jedi would've all been extinguished, Luke included.

There's a shake of her head.]

No, I wasn't there. I've lived on Jakku all my life and I've seen old, rusted Imperial ships that have crashed into the sand. Relics of the past, and some of their parts still...work, kind of.

[the galaxy would have been decimated. planets would have been destroyed in one single blast. cassian never let himself imagine a future in which the empire was infinite, because he believed in the rebellion with his whole life.]

[maybe he'll never see it, but at least he knows the future without the empire exists.]

[he latches onto her talking about herself, because he doesn't want to think about himself anymore.]

Better they are rusted out than active. What parts are still working?

Anything that can be used for another ship. Different compartments, compressors, circuit boards. Smaller parts that can be cleaned and traded.

[She paused for a moment, briefly looking down as she recalled her old home.]

Sometimes it's not worth trading though. Inside this old AT-AT, the computer still worked. It had blueprints of other Imperial ships, language information and a flight simulation. [Was it obvious she kept that for herself? It came in handy to know which parts worked on a ship, she learned different languages, and taught herself how to fly without ever leaving the ground.]

Are you a salvager? [she is, he's 99% sure, but the question opens up the potential for more detail. it already sounds like she knows her way around ships, and it makes him curious.]

A smart piece to keep. Is that how you learned binary? [another question that seems direct, but maybe she'll run with it. she could correct him, agree with it, or even ignore it. either way it'll tell him something.]

Scavenger. [Rey corrected, salvager meant she actually got to keep all the pieces she found.] I worked for Unkar Plutt on Jakku.

[There's a nod of her head.] And a few other languages, anything to help give me an edge when I was collecting parts. I...ended up turning the AT-AT Walker into my home. It was called Hell Hound 2.

[Could he imagine it? A young woman living inside an old war vessel and turning it something that was useful for her and not for war?]

[he understands the distinction, but he was still pretty close.] I've not heard of him.

[honestly, cassian has a very hard time imagining it when he's only ever seen at-at's used to destroy. but shelter is shelter, he supposes, and he's slept in very unsavory places before.]

If only they could all be homes instead of weapons. They are large enough.

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..srsly best question ever asked

\8D/

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