riverview | text: un scavenger.rey

Congratulations...to both of you. [A little out of her element, but she can handle it. There's a nod of her head, showing respect and showing that yes...she is Rey. Just, please don't call her a lady, that was weird.] A pleasure to meet you, Sir.

I don't really have a place to call home, but I did reside on a planet called Jakku. [Semantics, really.]

It's only one of a few hundreds, if not thousands of planets. But it's a planet from my world--universe if I really think about it.

Edited (so sorry for the edits T^T) 2017-12-06 05:48 (UTC)

And you. [There's no indication that she is a lady, and since Dany has met her before, he thinks Rey would have been introduced as such if she were.] You have our thanks.

What is Jakku like? Before I left my home as a boy, I wasn't sure I could call it one. I am a bastard; it was my father's home. But I missed it once I couldn't return to it.

Thanks? For what? [Was it for turning off that weird box?]

It was a dessert, Sir. Very little life grew there, and there were days when it felt as though you were breathing in the sun itself. It wasn't my home, it was a place where I lived and waited for any family to return.

[A bastard meets an orphan.]

For your congratulations. It's only been a few weeks since we decided to marry, though I have to admit I'd had it in my head for a while before that.

[The rest of what she says gives him a moment's pause, and is touching, in its way. He had become an orphan when his father died, but before that, he had given up all claim to family outside of the brotherhood. He speaks with curiosity and sympathy.]

Your family left you there? It must have been hard.

Oh, of course. My apologies, my mind got away from me for a moment. Are you planning to wed here? Or wait until you're able to go back to your world?

[There's a pause as she debates about opening up...they have something in common, but she doesn't want pity. The very last thing she needs is pity.]

Yes, they did. I don't remember why they did...but I was left there when I was a child. I worked as a scavenger--someone who collected parts of ships, old abandoned ships, to see what parts we could find. Some were worth more than others, and the parts that we could get to work again were more valuable. Traded in parts for food and water. Same thing, everyday.

[She speaks softly and calmly, like it's not a big deal. Somewhat a slave, just a different name.]

We haven't discussed it much. There or here... there are those I'd like to be present. My two sisters and a brother. I'd thought Arya and Bran were dead, but they live.

Someone kept you there on Jakku, while you were waiting?

[The fact that he doesn't like this idea is visible on his face. He wasn't a slave in the Watch, but he had been a boy who had never had as many choices as some others might, and they had dwindled until he'd felt like he'd had only one.]

They might have fed you whether you found anything or no.

If you're waiting for your family to be with you, perhaps it would be best to wait? Or, do two ceremonies? Something here, and something for when you return?

[Just suggesting. That's all she can do, since she doesn't know anything about this wedding business.]

I was..left behind. My family left me there, I can't remember why, but I was left on Jakku. Until they returned, I had to survive.

[She thinks for a moment, recalling the many times she went to bed hungry because she had to ration things out.]

No, I wouldn't have been fed. Depending on the value of your work determined how much they gave you. Sometimes it was enough for a day, sometimes barely that. You had to learn to be careful with your food, in case a sandstorm hits. Sometimes they lasted days, and you had to have enough food to get you through that and until you could find something worth trading.

[If she can't remember why, he thinks she must have been a very young child at the time. It makes him angry on her behalf; it sounds like injustice, like cruelty. The Watch had taught him that many men's lots were worse than his had been, but even so, few had been forced to that kind of work, not even Pyp or Grenn.

Could you afford to have friends in that situation, when every task meant another bit of food or water? What if the recruits of the Watch had been truly set against each other, instead of being encouraged to embrace each other as brothers? The killers who joined to escape a death sentence would have killed everyone else.]

You were alone there? How did others come to Jakku? Willingly, or...?

[It was cruel, but it was the past. She can't think of it too much. She has to move forward. She has to be able to do more and see to it that the First Order are destroyed.]

I was alone, yes. [A young child, trying to defend for themselves.] I don't know how the others were brought to Jakku. There were other places that had other tribes, or people, I suppose. But I never ventured out there. People did come by on ship though, to maybe stop for rest or to talk trade. I listened here and there, but mostly kept to myself.

For the other scavengers there, you looked out for yourself and that was it.

[Jon is, for all his brooding, more or less a kind and affable man. But his expression has gone from friendly to sober and troubled through the course of this exchange.]

When I was a boy, I made a vow to stay somewhere without fully understanding what it meant, and I was only released from it by... by accident. I made it because I didn't know what else to do, and I didn't have anywhere else to go, but it was still my choice. Until the moment I made it, I could have left freely. It was a harsh place, but I think that in many ways, Jakku was harsher for you.

Things are better for you now? How did you get away? Not only by coming to Riverview, I gather.

[..Well, no one said her life was easy. She didn't mean to make this entire conversation about her, or her life. They could talk about the different planets she's been to instead if he wants.]

Jakku was a world I lived on for many years, and for all it's harshness, I learned how to survive. Not many can say that. I am not bitter about it, and learned it's best to move on.

[There's a nod of her head.] Things are better for me, and not because of coming here.

I left because of a droid--a robot, a round mechanical being, named BB-8. I found him on Jakku, and then Finn, a friend, found me..and one thing lead to another, and we left. [Minus them fleeing because of the First Order and being shot at.]

The one who talks in numbers! [BB-8's reputation precedes him.]

It's good that you got away. Where did you get away to? We're bound to the ground where I'm from, Rey... everyone but Daenerys. She rides her dragon. I can only ride in a winch cage or climb a tower's steps to get high in the air, and then only so high as people can build. Touching the stars sounds like a miracle.

Yes! Him! He speaks in binary. It's a pretty interesting language, and easy to learn. [She thinks it's easy to learn, but that's her.] How did you come across him?

I ended up on a ship, a magnificent one called the Millennium Falcon. We landed on a planet called Takodana....there was so much green, more than I ever thought possible in the entire galaxy. [Her voice takes on a softer tone then, still in awe of what she saw.] We stayed there for a few hours and then went elsewhere... [With her getting kidnapped, but shhh. No need to get into that.]

She had told me as much! Flying is a very freeing experience. Piloting the Falcon was amazing. When you make that jump into Lightspeed--literally the speed of light, the colors and the light itself is amazing, but when you're actually flying and are with the stars...there's nothing like it.

What is your world like then? I know ships are used for ocean travel. Are there any other magnificent creatures like dragons in your world?

( She takes a moment to say very quietly: )

This is why I spent so many years in Slaver's Bay. Her story was the experience of so many. Here or anywhere, we must see to it that no one is made to wear chains.

We will see to it.

Anything is possible when we stand together.

( She'd been determined to do it before, and alone. Now; the prospect of having his resolve and strength bolstering hers renders it so much more. )

Your people couldn't have chosen anyone better to lead them.

[For a moment, he thinks of Robb: their first choice, and someone who would have helped Jon against the Dead if he had lived. But he has to banish that thought from his head... Robb is long gone. Not even his bones are in the Stark crypt.]

It's a hard road they're headed down. It helps that you'll ease the way. I couldn't have chosen better.

They're my people too — I walk down this road with them. Though I can do no other than ease their way. Jon...

( Her expression shifts, and she gazes at him with tenderness in her eyes for a long moment. )

Some say you don't get to choose who you love. But my heart did. And there was none better for me in all the world.

( That description is thick with the hallmark signs of slavery, and she asks very emphatically: )

Whoever did that to you was evil. Were there others like you, in the same situation?

He was a brute, wouldn't say evil...just annoying and frustrating.

Yes, there were others, but there wasn't much to be done about it. You could try to leave, but there was no where to go. Or try and find work with one of the others stopping by, perhaps join their crew and leave that way. Or.. [There's a faint, bitter smile on her face.] Repair a ship.

Don't have to deal with him anymore..and possibly no one else.

Slavers are evil; why else would one seek to control the fate of others so absolutely?

It was repairing the ship which led to this adventure you took, then. Between that and how you were able to survive in that desert alone — you're a resourceful woman. I admire that in you.

( But the others... her heart twists in her chest to think of them. )

Possibly no one else?

...For profit. [The words slip out, recalling when he tempted Rey with 60 portions for BB-8.] I think he was working with the evil I spoke of earlier.

Actually, no. The ship I repaired was stolen by others. I wasn't planning on leaving at that point. I wasn't planning on leaving at all until someone convinced me to.

[There's a sheepish smile as she ducks her head a little.] There is nothing to admire. I wanted to live to see my family..and possibly too stubborn to die. But, thank you for your kind words.

When I left Jakku, there was a battle and I don't think the brute is in charge of the area I was in. I think everyone is probably doing better now.

My point exactly. Greed is a monstrous thing. And if he truly was, then I hope someone returns there to remove him and free the others like you. They should be at the helm of their own lives; not bound in servitude.

But you were able to do it; and now you've found your freedom. I'd call that resourceful, and it is.

( Her expression remains softer, now. ) I disagree. Anything is possible for you now that you're away from that brute, and that desert.

I do hope that you find your family one day. Or at least learn of their fate.

( Either way: she honours them in surviving so well. )

I don't know if greed was truly his main motive, but it wouldn't surprise me. I didn't know much about him, aside from reporting to him at the end of the day to trade my work for portions--food. But, you are right. Others should be at the helm of their own lives.

I suppose, that's one way to look at it. [Surviving, being resourceful, sort of the same in her book.] Though the living conditions weren't the best, I learned a lot. Different languages, and how ships worked, among other things.

[There's a pause from Rey.] I think most likely they're gone. If they had the chance to return, I think they would have, but it wasn't meant to be. But I do appreciate the thought.

If it weren't, he would have been paying the lot of you even a pittance for your services, and not the other way around. You're well rid of such filth.

Hardship can destroy many. Others are hewn into something altogether stronger for having experienced it. We are the latter. Assassins hunted me all my life; at times we were homeless throughout my childhood, or relying on the pity and self-interest of those who would use us. They thought my life would end when I was sold like a broodmare.

Like Jakku was for you, that was but the beginning for me.

( Something shifts in her expression; a knitting together of her eyebrows, a softening around her eyes. They hold empathy, not sympathy or worse, pity. )

It is a difficult thing. But then you can do no other than live on, one way or the other. I am the last of my family, too.

text: un scavenger.rey

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