( 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

[ragnarsson]

See, those terms, planets, galaxy, it's like a different language to me. Exploring the world by a ship on the water is the closest thing we have in comparison.

[The world can seem very small after hearing such things.]

[evasives]

There is plenty that sounds foreign to me despite being comfortable with space travel. But it is just as bizarre to me that some people only know one planet.

[galaxies are just so big. earth can't be the only planet to exist in that one.]

[ragnarsson]

We know of different worlds where I'm from, but different planets are something we just don't know about. Most of the planet hasn't even been explored yet.

[Such a shame Vikings were at the height of their culture when they were. They were natural born explorers and would have done quite well with space travel.]

[evasives]

Then at least you don't have to worry about a weapon capable of destroying it. [yet.]

[if they don't have the technological ability to leave their planet, the death star is even further off.]

Are you from Earth? [a lot of people seem to be from there, especially those without space travel.]

[ragnarsson]

[No, in Ivar's time, carnage is limited to how many warriors one can create into an army. It still equals a lot of death, but on a scale a lot smaller than a global one.]

Yes, but we call it Midgard in the time I'm from. I'm more than a thousand years behind most of the others from Earth.

[An extremely primitive time by the standards of those who had things like space travel in their time.]

[evasives]

[he's familiar with people from the same place being from different times, but only a few decades difference, not a thousand years. how jarring it must be.]

I am getting the impression it is mostly a human populated planet at least, even through the ages.

[the edges of the scene start to blur a little.]

[ragnarsson]

Just the humans, the gods, and the occasional giant, as far as I know.

[Ivar looks around. It appears the dream is coming to the end.]

Perhaps I shall see you in the waking world.

[evasives]

There are more species than I can count, in all manner of sizes.

[it's a little bit of a relief, because even though it's hardly the most intruding thing ivar could have seen, it's still uncomfortable for a stranger to see any part of him.]

It's a small moon. Who knows.