text » un: fathier

[starfortress]

I've never seen so many animals in all my life. Where I'm from, there's no wildlife. None. This place is amazing. [ playing the part. be calm, paige. you'll find your way.]  Although, I'm feeling wobbly as a mother Gorgybird.

[ it's the best thing she can think to say, that might attract the attention of anyone in the Resistance. it's not quite the most accurate signal but it's good enough for this situation.]

Does anyone know where I can see or find more?

Comments

[starfortress]

I could have found my way to you, you know. [ she honestly looks a little relieved.]

[volitaunt]

As your CO and as someone who's been here longer, it's my job to find you.

[ BING GOES THE ELEVATOR. In he gets. He's also simultaneously really worried and really trying not to be. ]

When exactly did you get here? Paige, what happened?

[starfortress]

A couple of days ago. I was in medical. [ Because being vague about what happened to her will really work with him, I'm sure.]

[volitaunt]

[ UH HUH. HE'S HAD TOO MANY FRIENDS WHO SPENT "A COUPLE OF DAYS" IN MEDICAL. ]

Why were you in medical?

[starfortress]

I had a bit of a fall before it happened... [ You know. The Thing. The thing he doesn't know about but she thinks he knows.]

I fell from the bombardier's pedestal to the platform above the bomb bay doors.

[volitaunt]

Kriffing hell, Paige.

[ His horror is not staged, and it's a pretty clear indicator that... yeah. He does not know about The Thing. ]

...Before what happened?

[starfortress]

[ She looks at him, confused. His was the last voice she heard before, how could he have not seen? ]

Commander... my bomber exploded after I dropped the payload.

[volitaunt]

[ There's a long, long silence, where he just stares at the screen, into the eyes of this girl that he trained, and can't say a thing. ]

What?

[starfortress]

You were there... [ She looks even more bewildered.] How did you not see... [ Her eyes widen and her heart shatters.] Please don't tell me they get you too...

[volitaunt]

See... [ Holdo. She wouldn't tell him what he'd missed, or what he couldn't remember, or what was coming. Was this why? ] I don't....

[ Think. Focus. ] The last thing I remember is the order to evacuate.

[starfortress]

Evacuate? Don't you remember the attack you led on the Fulminatrix?

[volitaunt]

[ The elevator doors chime. Open. Poe keeps staring at the device in his hand.

He hears the doors slide shut without registering that's what happened. BB-8 beeps a question, and Poe's too far out to even really hear it.

Barely there: ]

No.

[starfortress]

[ She's just learning about time discrepancies but Poe is from her time.]

Oh.

[volitaunt]

[ Another beep from BB-8. They're in the elevator. They're going to see her.

Poe pushes the button to open the doors, stepping out into the hall. ]

I'm about to--I'm almost to you.

[ He shuts off the comm and walks into communal housing. ]

[starfortress]

[ She makes sure to be at her bunk, standing close to the number so he can see her.]

[volitaunt]

[ He stops when he does. She's there. She looks alive, she looks perfectly and entirely alive.

So does Cassian. So does Jyn. He's just never had to think about leaving one of their own behind. Leaving someone he knows behind. Not when they haven't...

But she has.

Poe crosses the room quickly and then hesitates right in front of her, like closing that last gap and hugging her will turn her to dust. He reaches out instead, tentative, and rests a hand against her cheek. ]

[starfortress]

[ Despite the troubling revelations they'd just tripped over, she can't help but smile at him. And when he touches her cheek, she doesn't hesitate in moving to pull him into a hug. ]

It's good to see you.

[volitaunt]

[ He hugs her back, still in shock. He wants to say it's good to see her, too. He wants to be able to mean it. But there's too much going on inside his head. The conflict between being glad she's here, given a second life, running up hard against the mourning he's not sure he's allowed. He feels like he's talking to a ghost, but maybe that's all either one of them is. ]

Yeah. [ Again, the word is barely there. Then he hugs her back a little more firmly. ] Yeah, you too.

[starfortress]

[ She lets him hug her tighter before she speaks, she can sense his shock and she wants to lessen it somehow.]

Poe, it's okay.

[volitaunt]

It's not okay.

[ Her being dead is not okay. Her trying to comfort him, when he should be the one comforting her, is not okay. He draws back a little, brushes her hair out of her face. ] Rose...?

[starfortress]

[ Her expression falters at the mention of her sister.] My sister was on the Raddus.

[volitaunt]

[ So Rose, at least, might have lived. Rose could be back in their world, alive and well. It would break his heart to think the galaxy lost both the Tico sisters and only one of them ended up here.

He just nods. Because saying "that's good," seems entirely wrong. Cold. Cruel.

He pulls Paige into another hug. ]

[starfortress]

[ She wants her sister to be with her more than anything but this place...] Is this the after? [ Is this where they go when they die? Did that mean that Poe was dead? The Admiral? The General? Rey? Finn? The others she'd met from their world were long dead.]

[volitaunt]

I don't know any more.

[ He'd been so ready to believe what he'd been told, in spite of saying he didn't trust this place or its people. He'd wanted it to be true, that they could go back, that no time would pass. ] I don't know.

[starfortress]

Holdo told me the Raddus survived, that they made it to Crait? [ She pulls back to look at him. She doesn't tell him what else she knows, he's already taking it all so badly.] Wasn't that an old base from before?