( open ) we live, we die

[evasives]

who: cassian + you
what: another one for the memory sharing flood
when: mid october
where: dreams! or elsewhere in public spaces
warnings: spy things, death, murder, spoilers for rogue one, etc



( vision / flash ) i. the droid

[it's tanned hands, working on what looks like a very large robot: a black kx security droid, powered down. cassian tampers with the programming, fiddling with wires and hooking up the droid into his datapad. there's a brief reflection of his face in the black metal of the droid; he's younger, only a teenager, probably no older than fifteen with a prickly, patchy beard and less sallow eyes.]

[ten seconds pass, and he mutters something in fest to himself. then at last, he flicks the power back on. the droid's eyes light up, and he hobbles to his feet. it stands almost seven feet tall, and the angle suggests cassian is looking up from about a foot and a half lower.]

[i am k-2so. are you my reprogrammer?]

( vision / flash ) ii. the horizon

[there's a beach. the water is tinted with warm colors instead of blues, and out along the horizon is a giant sun. only it's not a sun at all, and there are puffs of air and explosions along the edges to prove it. the rest of the area around them is singing like a battlefield.]

[cassian walks weakly along the sand, upright only because of jyn beside him. his clothes are filthy and bloody as he looks down at them, his legs stumbling. as they reach the edge of the water, he collapses and she sets him down gently. he sinks into the sand, looking out at the very bright and damning fake sunset. each second that passes, it seems to grow closer. she reaches for his hand, and he looks down as he takes it.]

( dreamscape ) iii. the shot

[ visual. ]

[it's a very urban area, littered with people and voices and shops in all kinds of languages. cassian rushes through the streets, looking over his shoulder carefully. he moves like a shadow, breaking into a run when he finally ducks down an empty alleyway. there's a man waiting for him in a corner, his arm broken and pacing nervously about.

"news from jedha?" the man tells him about a defector imperial pilot who brings news about the empire building a weapon. a planetkiller. the message is from a man named galen erso. the conversation gets more frantic, nervous. "there's spies everywhere!" the man hisses.]

[the meeting is broken up by the arrival of stormtroopers. they ask for IDs. cassian jokes, laughs, plays it off, then shoots both troopers without hesitation. his informant starts to panic. "i'll never climb out of here with my arm!"

[cassian comes up behind him with a smile and a comforting voice. "calm down, we'll be all right."

[and then he shoots him. the body falls. cassian swallows, steadies himself against the murder, then leaps to climb up the wall's piping to escape.]

( dreamscape ) iv. the fall

[cassian is clinging to the edge of a data vault tower. above him is jyn, and even higher on the opposite wall, a door slides open. "jyn! he yells out, firing his blaster and initiating a quick round of firefight between a man in white and several stormtroopers.]

[one of the returning shots hits him, and his grip slips. he falls from the vault tower. his back slams into a metal beam, his arms briefly scramble for purchase on another, but he keeps falling, falling until he lands hard on a platform, his entire body limp and broken.]

[from above, there's an anxious quick yell of his name, "cassian!" but he doesn't move.]

( closed dreamscape ) v. the youth

[it's snowing outside. fest is a very cold planet, and even when you're small and aware of the dangers, the snow always has a level of adventure. twenty years ago, cassian was six years old. he's running through the snowy streets outside, scampering quickly as curfew approaches.]

[six year old cassian stomps back into the house, jumping on the floormat to shake the snow from his boots. there's a message sticking out of his pocket that he yells out is for his father, because even at six he's already running messages for the festian resistance. his mother comes over with a smile and helps him out of his coat, trading him a cup of something warm and steaming for his fluffy jacket. his father laughs in the kitchen, and cassian reaches for his mother's hand to pull her towards the sound.]

[he tells his mother excitedly about the other kids, how some of them were clonetroopers and they lost the big battle. his father beams down at him and ruffles his hair, but there is a fatigue to his eyes that the adult cassian shares. cassian just crawls into his lap and hands over the message, asking if he's allowed to read it too.]

[no, not this one. maybe next time. cassian shrugs it off, diving back immediately into his mug while his mother threatens to steal it for herself.]

[prose or brackets is fine; feel free to have a vision or a flash or both!]

Comments

[spellslots]

Sometimes there're no right choices.

[Those are words he's spoken to Lup before, they're some of the last words he spoke to Lup before he lost her for ten long and lonely years. Their whole lives have been about making choices they should never have had to make, and it's never as easy as right and wrong decisions.]

You do what you've gotta do to survive, there's no shame in that.

[evasives]

[he huffs out a laugh, but it's not really a laugh. a tired, understanding sigh, because he has no disagreement. it's a war, there are no good choices. cassian knows that. it doesn't stop him from feeling guilty about some of them.]

If you weren't so easy to read, you might make a good spy. [it's not entirely a compliment.]

[spellslots]

[Taako's answering laugh is genuine, because - yeah]

I make a good mercenary, darling, same thing without having to do the tricky kinda lying.

[The lack of morals, being willing to do whatever's necessary, he's got that part down, but yeah, he's not cut out for undercover work.]

[evasives]

[cassian has known plenty of mercenaries. it suits taako, weirdly, but maybe not so weirdly.]

[his dream self finishes the climb up towards escape, and the edges of the dream seem to fade a bit. it's kind of a relief, even if things hadn't gone as bad as he assumed.]

I did not do it for compensation. I'm not sure I could have done it for so long if my only motivation was monetary. [there's only so many ways u can fuck yourself up for cash. for a cause, however...!]

[spellslots]

I get it.

[Taako would call himself a mercenary and he'd be right, but he did believe in what the Bureau was doing, he thought there was something.... right, in trying to save the world, even if there were a lot of complicated other emotions tangled up in that.

But he's noticed the way the dream is faded, and he's done this enough times to know what it means.]

Hey, uh, if you wanna pretend this never happened that's cool. I'm good with these kinda secrets.

[evasives]

It's foolish to pretend it didn't happen. [as appealing as it is. he would rather know if taako ever had anything more to say rather than just overthink the need to know.]

These memories have been happening all over. I would just hope you would not share them with others.

[even jyn, who he tells virtually everything, hasn't gotten any of the content from dreams he's seen.]

[spellslots]

[Taako immediately puts a hand on his chest, quick to offer the reassurance:]

Oh, fuck no, snitches get stitches.

[The only thing he's shared is a little vague detail about one of Cisco's dreams with Lup, the rest he's kept to himself.]

[evasives]

[he laughs again, this sound very much closer to actual amusement however brief and dry and tired.]

That's a promise from you I can believe.

[he trusts it, as much as cassian can trust another person like that. which is to say not entirely, but judging from everything he knows of taako so far, this isn't something he'll blabber about.]

[the dream fades out after that, as cassian finally stirs gratefully awake.]