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.

[backoff]

Cloud grabs hold of his left arm, gripping it tightly as if he were remembering an old memory right now himself. Poe seemed to admire General Organa. A hero of the Rebellion. His lips pull into a frown. He remembers when he wanted to be a hero in SOLDIER because of a war hero General. Even while in someone else's room, his clothing fades into an Shinra Infantryman uniform. It startles him and he's annoyed by it right away.

"What rank were you before she demoted you?" He doesn't have to dig into the deeper questions right now.

[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]

The change of uniform has Poe's head tilting curiously, and with the question he fully stops his work to sit on the edge of the wing.

"Commander," he answers, "...She was right to do it. I made a call. Got a lot of people killed for a signal victory. I uh...I needed to learn that lesson."

[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."

[backoff]

Cloud reaches up and tugs at the green scarf around his neck. He makes a loud huff at it. There's a pause in his movements as he glances up at Poe as he speaks about what exactly happened.

"That would explain why she slapped you. Sometimes the decisions you make can get a lot of people killed or hurt." He too knows about that kind of decision making. Cloud's eyes drift back down to the workbench looking at the blaster.

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]

[*typo in last- single, not signal]

Following Cloud's gaze, Poe twists a face. "You know, you're might end up with the wrong impression of me if you pick that one," he warns, but he doesn't actually move to stop him.

[backoff]

[noted! o7]

Cloud tilts his head curiously. "Do you want to tell me anything before I pick it up? Or do you want me to make a judgement?" He takes a step to turn to look over at Poe.

"You might have the wrong impression of me by touching your things. I've never seen a weapon like that before."

[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."

[happybeeps]

"It's just a blaster..." Poe sighs, and nods for Cloud to take it. Better to let him see and explain after, there doesn't seem to be any other way out of this.

[backoff]

Cloud raises an eyebrow at that statement. A blaster that held what memory? He picks it up as if he were going to examine it closer.

[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]

They're back on the ship, more crowded, and as a purple haired woman gives the order to load the transports, the memory of Poe sighs.

"Yeah. I was afraid you'd say that."

He turns cocking his blaster, joined by a small number of resistance members, evidently staging a coup, and the woman turns as Poe speaks.

"Vice Admiral Holdo. I am relieving you of your command, for the survival of this ship, its crew and the resistance."

She stares him down with a disappointed look, while the officers raise their hands.
"I hope you understand what you're doing," she says solemnly.

"Yeah," Poe holsters his blaster, "I'm going to the bridge. If they move- stun 'em."

[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.

[doubled_speed]

"Oh, torture," Tommy says, crossing his arms and looking... resigned. "No medical implements, right? Goth-Helm over there doesn't seem the sort for it. And I can handle this shit if it's not, you know, medical."

Too many bad memories of his own.

[backoff]

He puts the blaster back down by the helmet. Cloud brings up a hand and places it under his chin. There's something at the end that Poe says that intrigues him. "You told them to stun them and not kill them."

Cloud looks up at him. "You stated that you were doing it for the survival of the ship. Where did you go wrong?"

[happybeeps]

"Not from him." Which doesn't necessarily mean they haven't been involved, but it doesn't appear Tommy will be forced to bear witness to any of that.

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

Kylo Ren stares slightly at him for a moment before lifting a gloved hand, and Poe's bravado fades a little as he eyes it, swallowing and shifting in his seat like he's preparing as the palm reaching out, angled towards his head.

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

"Ahh- hh" Poe stammers and pants, covered in sweat as that pressure builds, playing out in that absolute silence.

[doubled_speed]

Ah. That explained it.

"I fucking hate telepaths," Tommy sighs, and his fingers itch at his sides. Can you explode other people's memories? Even if he could, probably not polite to do so.

[happybeeps]

"I was trying to protect them, not get them killed." From his tone it may not have worked out exactly as intended.

"She was trying to do the same thing. She wouldn't let me in on her plan and I refused to believe I didn't know better. If I'd just stood down things might of ended different."