So who talks first? | Calibrations

[happybeeps]

WHO: Poe Dameron, OPEN
WHERE: Poe's Calibration room
WHAT: Calibrations
WHEN: 3 June - 10 June
WARNINGS: Torture, War, Weapons of Mass Destruction



You step out into a hangar, half sheltered, but open to the air along one side. The sky is blue, and in the distance there's scattered chatter from resistance members passing by as Poe and BB-8 work. Poe's perched atop the broken wing of his X-wing, scorch marks on her belly suggesting they'd recently come out of a tough scrape.

Poe's still half in his flight suit, the upper half tied round his waist, his old jacket sitting off to the side, draped over a ladder rung with care. There's scattered tools and wires to navigate, a makeshift workbench set up with his helmet and blaster abandoned there, next to his data pad which flashes at him with some unread message, though Poe seems to be pointedly ignoring it. Looking quite out of place, there's a tooka doll, not the sort of sentiment one might associate with Poe, and beside it, and old model of an A-Wing.

Comments

Blue Skies

[backoff]

Cloud remembers being mostly on rooftops going into helicopters, not too many hangers. He's amazed at the open sky in the room. It's a clear sky blue which catches him there for a moment. This is another room but it seems so real. His gaze looks to the wing of the aircraft. That's all it is to him, he has no idea about space ships, besides for the ones that are outside. Cloud spots the man perched up on top of the wing. The pilot, he would take a guess, but what was the ball?

He didn't stay focus too long on BB-8 though. Cloud walks quietly closer looking down at the workbench. The helmet catches his eye. Cloud presses his lips together, there's a couple of other items on here too. But he reaches out with both hands to pick up the helmet with care.

[happybeeps]

The scene shifts, the hangar replaced with the busy interior of a resistance ship, and Poe- still in his flight suit- looks sweaty but pleased with himself. At least until he reaches General Organa, where his smile is knocked away with a slap. He looks at her with surprise and confusion, and she sternly tells him, "You're demoted."

Poe appears to be baffled, stopping her from leaving. "Woah- wait- We-...we took down a dreadnought."

"At what cost?" she returns pointedly, seeming exasperated.

"You start an attack, you follow it through," the pilot argues, and Leia shakes her head in immediate dismissal.

"Poe- get your head out of your cockpit."

He huffs and tries to remove himself from the conversation, but the General presses on. "There are things you can. not. solve. by ...jumping in an X-wing and blowing something up. I need you to learn that."

She goes to pass him but Poe stops her, grabbing her arm.

"There were heroes on that mission," he insists, and Leia meets his gaze.

"Dead heroes. No leaders." She pulls away and leaves Poe to sit with that, the hangar slowly fading back into view.

Poe looks up from his place on the X-wing, a pensive look on his face. "I really wish she wasn't always right." He tries for a teasing smile despite whatever seems to be bothering him.

[backoff]

Cloud tenses at the memory. That sounded like a hard slap. He puts the helmet back down on the workbench shortly after. The voice brought his attention to look over at Poe. Cloud wonders about what actually happened before the slap. Why did he make a decision that resulted in the outcome that it did?

"Commanding officers tend to be." At least some of the ones he knew.

They usually had more training, knowledge and experience in their field. "Who is she?"

[happybeeps]

"General Leia Organa. She's the leader of the Resistance. And before that she was one of the heroes of the Rebellion. She's...an old family friend. And she's stronger than she looks."

He smiles fondly, and rubs at his jaw like he can still feel that slap. Clearly whatever issues the pair had in that moment, he looks up to her.

[kallig]

Altair has had his share of strange dreams.

But this isn't his.

Obviously, it must be Poe's. Altair didn't know the man well, didn't know how to really feel about him, or act around him. And he definitely did not want to poke about his mind in this way, much as he hoped that anyone else would refrain from poking about his.

Pasts, secrets, emotions. They should be willingly shared through words, not ripped from a person's very mind.

Arms crossed, he approached Poe, looking up at where he sits perched, "What are you doing?"

The doll sort of caught his eye. He was very much trying to ignore the temptation to touch it.

[happybeeps]

Poe paused his work, looking down at him and then back at the X-wing.

"Trying to fix the ship up before they come," he answered, glancing out at the blue skies with a frown. "...What are you doing here?"

[kallig]

Altair didn't ask before who came. Seemed a question he could find easily enough on his own.

He was too used himself now, to scramble for repairs before the enemy came, on days where even blue skies seemed to be a threat.

"I don't know. Seems invasive. But it's not me."

All his Sith power couldn't do something like this. The Agrii though, the Agrii were capable of it. And Altair didn't like that. Not for himself, not for everyone else. Maybe other people didn't have as much to hide as he did, but still.

"And I don't want to know."

As much as he didn't want to be known.

[happybeeps]

"No one's making you stay," Poe noted, nodding towards the open air, indirectly guarded. There were a number of things here he'd rather not delve back into.

"If you stay you're going to have to fight."

Scorch Marks

[doubled_speed]

These places are surreal in a strange way. But that doesn't keep Tommy from doing stupid things. He's nervous, he's bored, he's clearly trapped even if there is open sky out that way.

His fingers move before he really thinks. It's not going to hurt anyone, right? To just move closer to the strange ship, to let his fingers trail over the damage. To feel the burns.

"What's all this?" he asks, just as his fingers touch the burn.

[happybeeps]

"Tommy-" Poe tries to warn, but before he can the scene shifts around them.

The sky is gone, replaced with a dimly lit holding cell, narrow and metal plated. It holds a torture rack, with a bloodied and unconscious Poe strapped in place, and along the wall several panels blink with red light.

The not-memory Poe looks towards the door with a frown. "...You don't want to see this, kid."

[doubled_speed]

Ooooookay that was a thing that happened. And Tommy looks around now that the scene has changed. And he winces when he sees what there is in there. Ouch.

"What, worried about me being sympathetic?"

[happybeeps]

"Not that."

The doors open, and a dark figure enters, the brief shift in the light before the door closes again rousing the captured pilot.

"I had no idea we had the best pilot in the resistance on board," the figure notes, voice low and modulated through the mask, calm as Poe slowly comes to. His features harden as he sets his sights on Ren, a defiant look in his eye.

"Comfortable?" the man asks, almost mockingly.

"Not really," Poe returns, shifting slightly.

Ren begins walking slowly towards the prisoner. "I'm impressed...No one has been able to get out of you...what you did with the map," he finishes, stopping before him.

[art_of_war]

Thrawn's hands were, as always, clasped behind his back and he was wearing the white coat of a Grand Admiral of the Empire. He did not seem bothered by the hangar, though.

Noting the blue sky beyond he stood quietly in the midst of the hangar and looked at the sky. Though he had his fill of the heat considering how long it had made him sleep, he still enjoyed the light air currents against the skin of his face and closed his eyes to better feel the air currents made by a planet's atmosphere.

[happybeeps]

For a long while, Poe let him bask, not speaking up, working in silence though he kept an occasional eye on the Grand Admiral.

"...Have you been to D'Qar before?" he broaches, looking up from his work.

[art_of_war]

"I have not."

Thrawn opened his eyes and turned his head to regard Poe.

"Is that the planet that rebel command was moved to?"

Empire or Rebellion. Those distinctions hardly mattered now. It also didn't matter where Poe was from or how he came to be there. One only has to look around to see this was very different from the Rebel Alliance he was familiar with but they were still using antique x-wing ships.

[happybeeps]

"Resistance base," Poe corrected absently, "The Rebellion became the New Republic. They're set on Hosnian Prime." Were set up.

"...it was a nice place. Reminds me of home."

[deal_me_in]

"Now that's a ship that's got a history."

Cayde strolls in the way he always does, like he owns the place, or at least like he has every right to be there. The hangar's always been one of his favorite lurks back home, so there seems no reason for him not to lurk here and now.

The ship has a classic look to it, at least if he compares it to the jumpships he's familiar with back home. The Exo gravitates closer. "So, how fast she go?" Because with a design like this, it's not a question of if.

[happybeeps]

Poe smirks, giving the X-wing a fond pat, "I get her fixed up before you have to go and I'll show you," he promises, knowing the exact units won't mean much to Cayde if his world doesn't share them. That smirk promises fast though.

[deal_me_in]

"Sounds like a deal to me!" the Exo replies, beaming. He wanders over by the workbench, offering a greeting at the little droid while he nonchalantly inspects the things laid out there.

"She got a name? Every good jumpship needs a name."

He pauses as something else comes to mind. "-actually you got a name? That's probably a better place to start," he admits, even as he reaches down to pick up the blaster lying there. It's a weapon, of course he'd go for it.

[in_extremis]

The hot welded, oily scent of the hangar mixed with an urgently missed taste of fresh air and the expanse of the welcoming sky drew Tony across the hard floor first, hypnotized by this offer and what felt now like a nostalgic familiarity for an airfield or the deck of the helicarrier that he didn't even think was on the list of things he was missing back home. This wasn't at all home, though, not between the plant life Tony could see or the unfamiliar shape of the jets, making him turn away from the sky slowly to try to place this experience. "Mr. Dameron," he noticed then, eyebrows up in mild surprise, but not sure who else he would attribute this environment to. As though he was prepared for this all along, Tony started his confident stride toward the pilot and workbench, calling, "We aren't paying you to stand around, are we? Get to work," with a smile. It did look like Poe had something he could be doing. Tony wasn't sure if the host could be distracted in these things, but he was willing to try to sneak as much information as possible.

[happybeeps]

"It's Captain," he noted playfully, arching a brow, "If you're going to go with Dameron. Or just plain Poe." He paused his work, observing Tony from his perch atop the wing, "You look at home here, get you in a flight suit and you'd fight right in, mm?"

[in_extremis]

"Captain Poe," Tony replied obediently as he approached the bench, leaning both hands on it and taking in what he could easily place, good, most tools not totally alien, and the more personal touches that clearly had some significance in this place. Still calculating his options, Tony called back, "Are you offering yours? I'd hope it was tighter than that," before prodding at the thing he could ignore the least: the new message indicator on the datapad.

data pad

[immunetolight]

It's the data pad that Ren goes to first. He's been conflicted about whether or not the First Order is right but he's still curious about what the Rebellion is up to and the data pad probably has those answers. From what he understands about these damn rooms is that they show the past, not the present. He might get answers for when he inevitably returns to his own galaxy.

"What secrets do you hold, then?" he asks, touching it to see what the unread message is.

[happybeeps]

Poe watches Ren silently from atop his X-wing as he crosses the hangar, and BB-8 rolls to avoid the force user with an anxious beep.

The hangar disappears, though they still seem to be in this base. Poe's sweaty and battle worn, and the few Resistance officers that mill about look equally apprehensive. Poe nods towards the holo file, "Just...play it," he instructs, sighing and placing a reassuring palm on Leia's shoulder.

What plays is a scene Kylo should be familiar with, Hux's speech to the troops before the activation of Starkiller Base. And then- the destruction of the Hosnian System.

Leia's hand moves to settle over Poe's, and he pulls her close, wincing and pressing a kiss to her temple as a heavy silence settles over the room.

[immunetolight]

He's never seen the destruction up close from the eyes of someone who truly cared. He'd been removed from the destruction of Hosnian Prime and had only thought to be his grandfather again, to destroy that which was precious to the Rebellion in order to crush their spirit. Destroying one of the bastions of the New Republic had been a place to start.

It's different this way. Seeing his mother makes him want to turn his eyes away, too hurt by even the memory of it. She'd told him about Alderaan when he was younger, how beautiful it was and how it had disappeared in a flash when his grandfather had used the Death Star on it. As a child, he'd been horrified. As a teenager, he'd been enraptured.

"You didn't tell me you showed it to her yourself," he says, trying to keep the emotion from his voice.