revivalproject | So who talks first?

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So who talks first? | Calibrations

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.

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He snorted and shook his head, letting Tony poke about. "Does it look all that tight?" he asked. Though that smile faded as Tony picked up the data pad.

Abruptly the location shifted, it still seemed to be part of this base, but no longer with the clear few that hangar offered. Poe was sweaty and battle worn, and the few Resistance officers that milled about looked equally apprehensive. Poe nodded towards the holo file, "Just...play it," he instructed, sighing and placing a reassuring palm on the shoulder of his General.

A blue tinted holo lit up, showing a face Tony might recognize, General Hux in all his finery, stood before impossibly large First Order banners. Other high ranking officers were assembled behind him, and though they weren't in frame he seemed to be addressing his troops.

"Today- is the end of the Republic-"

Edited 2020-06-19 02:50 (UTC)

This wasn't nearly as pleasant, but Tony curiously circled around Poe to join him alongside the woman with him to better see what he was seeing. Tony hadn't spent nearly enough time with Hux to immediately recognize this image of him, but it was evocative of enough of his own experiences to make him narrow his eyes in scrutiny, sure that wasn't a fair assessment-- these were aliens. "Is that the engineer...?" he did ask belatedly, the voice and the pale face coming together to tug at Tony's recognition, but he wasn't sure who he was asking. How many people on Agra 10 were from this dimension?

"It is," Poe voice replied, not the Poe of the memory, but the Poe from the hangar, appearing abruptly just behind Tony with a solemn look on his face. "...Hux." What truce they had felt very thin back in this room, knowing what was coming.

The holo continued to play to the room of hardened faces.

"The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder," The speech was full of poignant pauses, and his audience was silent, hanging on his every word. "At this very moment in a system far from here, the New Republic LIES to the GALAXY while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance."

Tony wasn't confidently following. He stopped watching this projection early on, knowing what it looked like already by the sound of the voice, to first study the memory of Poe, then turn to the one that spoke to him, clearly with questions. There seemed to be three parties involved in whatever Hux was so passionate about, but it wasn't clear to Tony yet how exactly the people in the hangar fit into it. They didn't seem happy, but neither did Hux or the people around him, and they hadn't exactly mentioned each other before. "What team are we on?" Tony whispered out of the side of his mouth. Tony didn't think he was a team player no matter the answer, so far no one had his support, but he was having a hard time reading the room.

"Resistance," Poe murmured back softly, like he could somehow be heard by the other members of the memory. "I was Republic Navy, before Leia recruited me." He nodded toward the General, who lifted her hand to clasp over Poe's as they watched.

The holo continued- "This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand will bring an end to the Senate, to their cherished fleet. ALL REMAINING SYSTEMS WILL BOW TO THE FIRST ORDER AND WILL REMEMBER THIS AS THE LAST DAY OF THE REPUBLIC!" There was a background noise that sounded like the saluting of a large force of troops, and a fierce-some look in Hux's eye.

That didn't actually help. Tony opened his mouth to respond, but he could only get as far as First Order, Resistance, and Republic, and both of the former were working against the latter. Hux didn't seem like a fan of the Resistance, but the distinction between his deal and Poe's hadn't been resolved for Tony yet. Except that maybe Poe didn't want to do any bowing; that didn't sound like something Tony would be into, either. "He seemed much calmer when we met," was all he could offer, matching Poe's volume.

"...He says he's changed," Poe replied, though his brows creased as he watched the version of him he was more familiar with, still not sure if it was true. "The New Republic is our Government. The First Order...they're basically a remnant from the Empire, the people who held the Galaxy before the Rebellion took it back. They've been a threat the Republic refused to take seriously, and so those that saw them for what they were formed the Resistance. To try and stop them before-"

Before this-

"FIRE!" Hux shouted, and the view abruptly cut to show the planet Starkiller Base from a short distance, a red beam igniting and firing out into the stars with a massive force. A different cut followed the path of the beams, where they split into five distinct lines and then- each found their target, all five planets of the Hosnian system obliterated in a violent and fiery display.

The Resistance members gasped, and Poe squeezed his eyes shut in horror, forcing himself to look back and see what they had done.

That description only helped to strengthen the loose connection to HYDRA that Tony was seeing through this imagery, making him relax somewhat in this company, knowing more confidently that whatever Poe and his Resistance had been up to had to have a more agreeable philosophy. That was confirmed in their reaction to the images that followed, but they seemed so abstract to Tony that he was much slower to react, frowning at the projection and wanting to take the device to replay it for himself until he properly understood what he was witnessing. It took a glance around at the stricken faces to properly process the information, focus settling on the Poe that was standing outside of this memory with him. Tony's stomach dropped, and he heard himself saying, "They weren't populated...?", as though that would make the display that any less awesome and horrifying, and he knew the answer anyway.

Poe nodded stiffly, not quite in his usual sorts having been confronted with this memory again.

"The Hosnian system. Home to the New Republic Senate, and...a population in the billions," he confirmed, "They wiped them out in-" He moved to snap his fingers, hand trembling and closing into a fist instead, releasing a slow breath as the hangar faded back in.

Poe sighed, combing his fingers back through his hair and dropping to sit, needing a moment after that. "We're at war, I can't promise anything else you find here will be any better than that."

War did not properly encompass the horror of the destruction of five planets. A field of willing combatants in a war of ideologies was barely justifiable; what that projection showed was the genocide of a star system. And most immediately: "That's that Hux?" Tony asked, jabbing a finger vaguely back the way he had come. "Walking around out there?" Tony wasn't sure there was enough changing a guy could do after that level of destruction to justify what looked like a truce. Tony couldn't even imagine that kind of alliance with Galactus, and that was a force of nature that had the restraint to only destroy one planet at a time. Hux was a human being that had a concept of morality. Poe was either the most patient person Tony had ever met, or a complete asshole.

"..." Poe nodded, knowing it wasn't the easiest thing to buy after seeing that. That Poe would just...tolerate living in the same space Hux breathed air.

"When I first showed up I went to him. To kill or be killed by him, whichever came first, but the people here, the Captain, he stopped us. Let us both say our peace, and told me he'd spent the last 3 years with Hux in some whole other place like this. That he was a good man. I don't know that I'll ever be able to believe that, but...killing him here does nothing to help anyone. He might deserve it, but...we've agreed to a sort of truce. For now."

Tony wasn't sure if he would have jumped to killing the guy, but at the moment he could definitely understand the impulse, and didn't have a better solution for managing that kind of threat in Temba if he had shown up to find Red Skull already entrenched in the community. And he didn't even succeed. And that wasn't a star system. Being told that a person like that was a 'good man' would have been paralyzingly isolating. Tony watched Poe with a sympathetic frown, opening his free hand and hoping something would occur to him to offer, but he had no idea how to convey that kind of understanding-- he wasn't even sure he totally did understand, on this scale.

He did understand 'killing him here does nothing to help anyone', making his defensive shoulders drop, settling into a frustrated acceptance. It wasn't even Tony's fight, technically, if Poe thought this truce was the reasonable response, his was the lead to follow. That didn't mean Tony had to look happy about it. "At least keep an eye on him..." he muttered, tossing the data pad back down irritably, sure that a truce didn't have to involve leaving the guy who didn't see a problem with blowing up a bunch of planets in control of the power plant. A less explosive job, maybe. Thoughtlessly, restless hands working ahead of him, Tony picked up the model ship instead.

It was a complicated situation, Poe knew. And it was hard, seeing him. Even if they'd managed to be civil to one another, even...friendly at times. Seeing all this just reminded Poe that eventually they'd be right back where they started.

"I have been," he assured, before the world shifted again.

A young curly haired boy sat inside the cockpit of an A-wing, settled in his mother's lap as she ran him through the pre-flight. He was unmistakably Poe, and he looked every bit his mother's son.

The starfighter lifted off, giving a good view of the ranch and colony below, and then the jungles of Yavin 4. In the distance you could see the Grand Temple, ancient and towering above the trees, and Shara Bey pointed it out her to her son as she guided his hands. Eventually she let go all together, letting him steer on his own, and Poe gave a giddy laugh, looking just as at home there in the sky as his mother did.

That was emotional whiplash that left Tony leaning back against the workbench with a queer nostalgia, the phantom wound all the stranger knowing that it wasn't his but Tony wished it was. It wasn't enough to overtake the flash of exhilaration from the flight that Tony turned up at Poe in a gleeful grin, blindly abandoning the model to come closer to the ship Poe worked on to run a hand along it instead. "No question where you came from, huh?" he observed. "How many of your friends were hanging around your house way too long? Is your dad still in the picture? Don't worry about it, I'd be a great stepdad."

Poe laughed, sharing in that lingering feeling. Nothing could beat the thrill of flying, and there was nothing quite like that first time.

"Dad's the only one still in the picture" he corrected gently, "So you'd have to settle for stepmom." And then, a touch more seriously, "...she died. About two years after that."

The way Poe corrected him had Tony looking back with a frown, but it was something of a relief to learn it wasn't a very fresh wound. That would have been a lot for a guy to go through at once, and Tony didn't know if he was capable of offering the correct condolences; even now, he only gave an apologetic pout for the loss. He wouldn't want someone trying to console him over his parents' death in his head. Instead, his exploring fingertips skipped over rivets to wander curiously through the scorch marks that marred the metal, starting to ask, "What happened...?"

"Fire fight-" Poe started to explain, but as soon as Tony's fingers skimmed over those scorch marks the sky was gone, replaced with a dimly lit holding cell, narrow and metal plated. It held a torture rack, with a bloodied and unconscious Poe strapped in place, and along the wall several panels blinked with red light.

The doors opened, and a dark figure entered, the brief shift in the light before the door closed again rousing the captured pilot.

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

"Comfortable?" the man asked, almost mockingly.

"Not really," Poe returned, shifting slightly.

Ren began 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 finished, stopping before him.

Not-memory Poe gave Tony a side long look- "You seem to have a knack for picking the uncomfortable memories."

Tony hissed at the sight of Poe's abuse, expecting a dogfight if anything at the shift of the scene and not prepared for whatever this was. He recovered easily enough to approach the rack curiously, then the strange computers as he circled around to follow the new figure back through the room, sticking close to his dark hems to try to assess this person. "You could be better at warning a guy," he mumbled in reply. "This one seems enamoured with you," he pointed out, eyebrows raised. Tony could tell what was happening here, and he wasn't a stranger to his own torturers listing his accomplishments, but maybe that was only a sign the torture was about to get worse on Earth. This was a cultural exchange, Tony could be optimistic.

"Oh, definitely. He always has been," Poe's lips quirked in a teasing fashion, as though Kylo could hear.

The captive Poe looked up at Ren with a challenging stance. "You might want to rethink your technique."

Kylo Ren stared silently at him for a moment before lifting a gloved hand, and Poe's bravado faded a little as he eyed it, swallowing and shifting in his seat like he was preparing as the palm reached out, angled towards his head.

After a moment, Poe winced, and the air seemed to take on a certain pressure, like something dark was trying to bore its way inside your mind, a shadow of what the captive was feeling as he struggled and pants. Ren remained silent and abruptly he shoved his hand forward, an invincible force throwing Poe's head back hard against the rack.

"Ahh- hh" Poe stammered and panted, covered in sweat as that pressure built, playing out in that absolute silence.

Tony was close enough to watch the angle of the masked figure's arm, and the memory Poe's reaction beyond, clenching his jaw at the phantom pressure and narrowing his eyes at the display. He tensed further at the jerk of the memory's head, and threw a look Poe's way, eyebrows raised with the question and mouth a soft pout of apology for the pain. It didn't look unlike something Professor X could do.

"The Force," Poe explained softly, breaking that silence.

"Where is it?" Ren pushed, while Poe convulsed and sighed.

"...The Resistance...will not be intimidated by you- hhh-" he broke off with a wince as Kylo compelled Poe's head forward, the pilot struggling to remain stoic.

Kylo's fingers quivered with effort as he repeated, "Where. is it??" anger seeping into that calm. Poe trembled, jaw tight and brow furrowed as he fought this loosing battle, face twisting in agony before a low, long scream wass slowly dragged from him.

It cut to black and a moment latter they were back in place in the hangar.

"A lot of them are going to be like that," he cautioned properly.

The hangar felt invasively bright, and Tony gave his own shiver as they returned to it, eyes closed and breathing slowly to try to shrug off that scream. It wasn't incredibly convincing when he did, turning up to Poe with a twist of his mouth and still looking questioning, but he did let it go long enough to head for the ladder to join Poe up on the edge of the wing. Sitting close to Poe's shoulder, Tony brought a hand up behind him to run through his hair at the back of his head where it had knocked back against the rack, and pet down his neck to massage a thumb into the muscle. "War sucks. What, you think you're special?" he said.

It was the sort of casual intimacy Poe was used to bestowing on others, and he looked a little surprised, like he hadn't realized just how touch starved he was. His lips quirked upwards and he leaned against Tony to give him a little shove with his shoulder.

"Oh I know special," he countered with a laugh.

The shove had Tony dropping his hand quickly, leaning back against the wing casually with his hands safely occupied, hoping Poe had at least heard what Tony was trying to say regardless. He didn't seem too put off, and Tony smirked back at the laugh. "The best pilot in the Resistance, was it?" he asked, then gave a tap to the metal under his fingers. "Can she still fly?"

"Very best," he grinned cheekily, and gave the X-Wing a fond pat. "Don't see why not. None of this real, right? You wanna give her a go?" he asked, reaching over to find a spare helmet and tossing it Tony's way.

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