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

[happybeeps]

"I just...felt it. I dunno," Poe shrugged a shoulder, not able to really explain, "And at this point, if I was wrong then I died a little bit sooner than I was all ready going to, so...not a super big risk on my part, if I'm being honest."

Sliding into the cockpit, the seats were set up back to back, and Poe shrugged off his jacket, looking around the controls eagerly. "I've always wanted to fly one of these things," he muttered excitedly, despite the situation they were in. He turned to crane his neck back towards the trooper, who was pulling off his helmet again in the gunner chair. "Can you shoot?"

"Blasters, I can."

"Okay, same principle," Poe coached, turning on switches, "Use the toggle on the left to switch between missiles, canons and mag pulse. Use the sight on the right to aim. Triggers to fire," he laid out calmly, and the soldier looked a bit panicked, taking hold of the controls with a nod.

"This is very complicated," he concluded anxiously.

The TIE fighter jerked, and Poe steered them from the dock, stopping short abruptly as they were still anchored by a cable.

"I can fix this," Poe assured, alarms blaring.

[in_extremis]

The lurch made Tony look sidelong at Poe then ask, "And what part of this," with a circling finger at the general situation in the memory, "was making him trust you?" The enthusiasm for trial by potentially literal fire was charming, but the other guy in the armor looked too anxious to appreciate the trait.

[happybeeps]

"Well he's stuck now, isn't he?" Poe dismissed, elbowing Tony in the ribs for his cheek and flashing him a grin.

The storm troopers in the hangar opened fire on the escaping TIE fighter as Poe continued to try and force them free, his companion figuring out the controls and firing back. Outside there was a series of explosions as he held his own.

"I got it," Poe announced finally, sounding confident, and the cable snapped, letting them soar from the hangar. There was considerable momentum, and even Poe seemed taken aback for a moment.

"Woah! This thing really moves!" he exclaimed, looking half exhilarated and half terrified.

The TIE fighter swooped around, flying along the Star Destroyer's belly.

"All right, we gotta take out as many of these cannons as we can, or we're not going to get very far," he instructed.

"All right," the trooper confirmed.

"I'm gonna get us in position. Just stay sharp."

He weaved to avoid gun fire.

"Up ahead! Up ahead! You see it?" he calls, getting them lined up, "I got us dead center, it's a clean shot."

"Okay, got it-" the trooper muttered, working the controls and locking onto his target. Poe served to avoid the cannons shots as he fired, dodging their explosions. The trooper shouted with excitement. "Yeah!!"

"Yes!" Poe echoes, equally thrilled with his shot.

"Did you see that?! Did . you. see. that?" he continued, and Poe laughed, grinning widely as they soared.

"I saw it!"

The weaved away from the massive Destroyer, swooping to avoiding more gunfire.

"Hey, what's your name?" Poe finally asked, not quite out of danger, but this was as good a chance as any.

"FN-2187," the trooper answered, and Poe's brow quirked, trying to look back at him.

"F-...what?"

"That's the only name they ever gave me," he answered with a shrug, and Poe considered for a moment.

"Well I ain't using it. FN, huh? Finn. I'm gonna call you Finn. Is that all right?" he proposed, struggling again to try and look back at his new friend.

"Finn. Yeah. Finn, I like that. I like that," the newly dubbed Finn decided.

"I'm Poe. Poe Dameron," the pilot introduced with a grin, the exchange well over due.

"Good to meet you ,Poe."
"Good to meet you too, Finn."

[in_extremis]

Tony took the ribbing as an opportunity to wrap an arm around Poe to keep them both steady, hand clutched in his shirt, the other braced on the ship, keeping him close as Tony tried to track everything from the array of the cockpit to the weaponry and the lure of space around them. It was when Finn accepted his name that Tony finally looked back at Poe with a lopsided smile, watching him for a beat before admitting, "He's pretty cute," now that he had seen less anxiety and more excitement from Finn, and realized from that introduction what this memory was doing in Poe's hangar.

[happybeeps]

Poe's cheeks may have grown a little hot, but he didn't bother with any denials, he just grinned and bit at his lower lip with a shrug. "Yeah, he is."

The steadying hand might not have been entirely necessary, but Poe accepted the brace without compliant, laughing and looking pleased with how excited Tony seemed to be by all of this.

The memory faded, Poe wanting to end it in a happy place, and maybe not show off his crash when he was trying to hold up that image of being the best pilot in the Resistance.

"The X-wing's a lot smaller."

[in_extremis]

The loss of the flight did make Tony pout, but he was left holding the jacket and the helmet, kneeling on the flyer's wing. "I've squeezed into smaller places," he assured Poe, "just have to find the right angle." He pulled the helmet on first, tucking the jacket under his arm to crawl his way back to the cockpit and peer in curiously; this one did feel more like an F1 than the TIE fighter.

[happybeeps]

Poe arched a brow playfully and climbed inside with a practiced ease. He wasn't exaggerating, there really wasn't a lot of room for one person, let alone two.

"Yeah, you think you can squeeze in? Or should I let you fly solo?"

[in_extremis]

Solo seemed to be the only real option, so Tony cocked his head as Poe climbed in ahead of him and gave him a wry grin, eyes narrowed in scrutiny, not sure how else to take that move. Rolling his shoulders back, he pulled the helmet back off and smoothed his hair down deliberately before leaning across Poe for a steadying grasp on his other side to ease himself down into the cockpit, knees spread across Poe's lap and tucked tightly against his hips, back to the controls. Head still up, back straight with one arm over Poe's shoulder to dangle the helmet, Tony shifted in his seat with a very thoughtful pout and offered, "It's not that bad."

[happybeeps]

This probably wasn't the first time Poe had tested this particular theory, hands moving to help steady Tony with an amused laugh. He reached around him to grip the controls, head tilted like he was really considering whether they could attempt a take off like this.

"Little tight," he teased, and he gave Tony a considering look, hands dropping back down to settle casually over his thighs. "You do this sort of thing out side of a guy's head, or is this a mindscape only kind of deal?"

[in_extremis]

If they could take off like this, Tony already knew the reality would not live up to the fantasy, and didn't really want to risk spoiling it for himself with something already uncomfortably jamming into his calf. "Are you?" he volleyed back with a grin, and took a last look from his perch around the hangar that he could see before bowing his head out of sight of the scattering of people wandering around with a chuckle at the pointless instinct. This close, face inches from Poe's, Tony could observe, "God, you smell great," in a growl that only tapered as he continued to answer, "I do plenty of things outside of mindscapes, depends on what you're asking. I won't tell your boyfriend, if that's what you're worried about."

[happybeeps]

"They can't see us." He laughed, grin spreading, and he shifted in his seat to pull Tony that much closer, lifting his chin to steal a demanding kiss, humming thoughtfully.

"Not my boyfriend-" he correctly breathlessly. BB-8 whistled from below, seeming to counter that response, and Poe rolled his eyes in amusement. "Don't play favourites, Buddy."

[in_extremis]

If this was a 'mindscape only kind of deal', Tony couldn't say he cared much about the particulars of Poe's relationships; there was no way of getting caught, it didn't really interest Tony. So he eagerly chased that kiss that Poe abandoned just to talk about some other guy, his hand dropping from where it still braced against the side of the cockpit to search up from Poe's shoulder and catch his jaw to try to pull him back up, only to snort a laugh at the droid's interruption. "He's attached," he observed. "That's a good sign. I hope you guys work out." He closed the distance between them again to capture Poe's lips, thumb on his chin coaxing them open for the swipe of Tony's tongue.

[happybeeps]

Poe laughed softly, shrugging a shoulder, not needing much coaxing at all. His lips parted with an eager sigh. Mindscape or not, it's been too long. The cockpit doesn't leave them much room, but Poe tried to make the most of it, hand shifting to palm him through his pants with an encouraging groan. They didn't have much time left before they got spit back out into the real world.

[in_extremis]

That made Tony tense, snickering his surprise for the boldness of that grope into Poe's mouth as his shoulders curled a little protectively, but nowhere else really to go. Even in that position, he could feel the controls digging into his back, thighs caught between Poe's hips and the unyielding press of the pilot's seat. He could barely reach between them himself, settling for grabbing Poe by the elbow to still his hand as Tony's laugh became a stuttering, hitched breath. The stress of that bunker had made it impossible to even get hard enough for a brief distraction, so it wasn't a particularly convincing argument when Tony managed to ease himself back enough to mutter, "Ah...not that I don't appreciate the initiative, believe me..." He had been more than willing to encourage Poe's initiative thus far, and licking his lips didn't stop him from a taking a brief intermission to lean back in for another lingering kiss that he hummed his appreciation for. Breathlessly, he continued, "But I feel like we're going to run into some crippling resource issues pretty fast, we didn't anticipate this level of, ah, growth."

[happybeeps]

Poe backed off almost immediately, flashing an apologetic smile and biting at his lip before indulging in that further kiss. He gave a sigh of acknowledgement, breathing a faint laugh through his nose.

"It always seems like a better idea than it turns out to be," he agreed, glancing round the cockpit. Not nearly enough room to really enjoy themselves.

[in_extremis]

"Always?" Tony picked out, sitting up taller then as though with that word Poe had offended his legacy. What is was was a challenge, but Tony said, "What other hussies are you bringing back to your place?" so get a read on what high bar he had to cross to make himself the cockpit makeout standard to strive for.

[happybeeps]

He laughed, biting at his lip and giving a shrug, trying to look at least a little sheepish. "I mean...the risk of death is a pretty effective aphrodisiac," he excused, gesturing about the hangar.