open ( ☄ ) across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.

[realists]

WHO: Jyn Erso & YOU
WHERE: Around the ship
WHEN: The first few days after her arrival (Dec 28-31)
WHAT: Getting her bearings, exploring, etc, etc.
WARNINGS: SPOILERS IN COMMENTS PROBABLY; mark in the subject line if you don't want them and I will steer clear. I will match format as well, so come at me.

--

[ 001 - HANGER BAY ]

Jyn knows something familiar from home is in that hanger bay and it drives her insane that she can't reach it. Which is probably what draws her back to the door morning after morning, checking to see if the doors will open.

They do not. She kicks them. They still do not open.

Something something put your freakin' dog tags on and get over it, Erso later and she gets inside to peer at the other ships, but mainly it's to throw herself on Cassian's U-Wing and just sit there. It's a study of pointlessness since she can't go anywhere on it, but it's from home and that's all that really matters.

[ 002 - TRAINING FACILITIES ]

Her trips to the training facilities garner better results, at least if you consider siphoning off excess energy through a violent explosion of fists and feet to be something better. The training dummies fare better than, say, a person would, but it's honestly hard to tell if Jyn would pull her punches with a person. She works herself until her limbs are shaking and her muscles are strained to breaking point and then simply moves on to the next apparatus.

The circuit she makes quickly becomes her standard, even when she ventures into the gym late into the night. Boxing, running, climbing, running again.

She's hooked into the climbing wall when her fingers slip and she goes flying down before the auto belay catches her and jerks her to a stop with a hastily aborted shriek of surprise. She kicks the wall. It does nothing.

"Damn it!" She jerks on the belay to lower herself down but finds herself... stuck. Which is just great. She jerks at it again. Jerks at it gently like maybe if she is nice it will give in to her. Guess what? It doesn't. Stuck and only half unwilling to wrangle herself out of the harness to climb down freely, Jyn glances around for someone else to press the button from the bottom. She tips all the way back until she's basically upside down and calls out, "Hey! Could you give me a hand?"

[ 003 - SHOPPING CENTRE ]

Maybe, maybe, if her assigned job wasn't as an exterminator, Jyn would actually work. She has no particular distaste for bugs and parasites, but she also doesn't have any real need to work with them on a daily basis. Not being incredibly social doesn't mean she wants her companions to be bugs.

Still, she works at least one single, solitary shift for the extra credits only so she can paw around the shopping center without dragging Cassian away from his own job. His own much less generally offensive job. Meandering around a market is not something she ever had time for, usually striking with precision and retreating. Now she wanders, unsure of how to find what she's looking for.

The confusion doesn't look comfortable on her expression, eyebrows knitting together in annoyance.

Comments

002

[yokunaru]

Though there technically isn't a reason for him to be keeping himself in top shape, now that he's out of the running for the Finals, Yuuri still finds himself drawn to the ship's training facilities. Keeping up a regular training schedule wouldn't be the worst way to keep himself busy, he decides in the end.

Just as he's taking note of all the equipment available to him, Yuuri hears someone calling out. All he has to do is look up and he spots her easily, hanging from harness as she is. When no one else seems to be coming to her aid, Yuuri walks over cautiously.

"I'm here. What do you need me to do?" He eyes the climbing wall dubiously, knowing he'll have to call someone else if she needs someone to climb up and get to her.

[realists]

There is nothing Jyn loathes more than asking for help, but she also isn't a particular fan of dangling and she refuses to be like this when Cassian wanders in looking for her as she knows he will.

"Where my line is clipped into the floor. There's a blue button." Meanwhile she's just

hanging out.

[yokunaru]

Something like relief washes through him at her reply. Pushing a button? That he can definitely do.

Crouching down beside the wall, Yuuri absently pushes his glasses back up when they slide down his nose. "Found it. I'm pressing it now," he calls up, in case she needs the warning. He jabs at the button a moment later.

[realists]

Once the line loses slack, she straightens up with a little jerk and pushes herself off the wall to repel the rest of the way down the way she was meant to in the first place if it weren't for that shameful slip.

Her boots touch the mat and she stands up, shimmying out of the harness like it's personally offended her.

"Thanks." It's not much in the way of gratitude but, honestly, that much is a step in the right direction for this mannerless heathen.

003 12/30

[straycloud]

There is a terribly interesting woman looking terribly lost, and it's enough to divert Koumyou from whatever inconsequential misadventure he'd only partially planned. He wanders over, making no effort to conceal his curiosity. How or even why she catches his attention is something he doesn't bother thinking through. Instinct is a guide that rarely leads him astray.

"Is something calling for you? It must be hard to hear in a crowd like this." Despite the fact that he's speaking borderline nonsense, he does so with a confident air as if he approaches strangers like this every day. It probably helps that he does.

[realists]

Someone is always catching her in a market. This one is far more glossy and slick than the bustling market in Jedha, but still someone is calling to her with a strange comment that doesn't make a lot of sense to her pragmatic mind.

She squints, mouth slanting down.

"Things don't have calls." A voice mutters 'well what is the Force then?' but she ignores it.

[straycloud]

"Don't they?" Koumyou doesn't fit in at all, not among the cleanly manufactured lines of the market. Everything is artificial and sharp, and it feels like a distinct contrast to his religious robes and the mantle of his calling.

He smiles, kindly and broadly. "Then it must be someone. Or are you doing the calling?"

[realists]

Maybe she's only imagining the way her head is already pounding but she doesn't think she is. Where is Baze to translate for her? Her heart cracks a little thinking about her companions and her frown deepens, less from confusion this time.

"I'm not calling anyone, I'm looking for something." The natural downturn of her mouth gives her a somber expression nearly always, but her eyes hold idle curiosity. "Are you a monk?"

001

[juniberries]

The Castle of Lions is far too big a ship to keep aboard the hangar, so Allura just has to get used to using the shuttle system to take her to and from her ship, once it's back up and running of course. Until then, she's made her home in the assigned room she's been given, but she still makes her way towards the hangar to look at what ships are residing there.

She's got a bouquet of flowers in her arms, leftover from work, and three space mice are nestled among the flora.

...wait a tick. Three, then where's the--

Allura looks around the hangar for the fourth mouse, approaching a young woman sitting on, what she assumes, is her ship.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but you haven't seen a mouse, have you? My friend seems to have wandered off."

[realists]

A mouse.

This is exceptionally funny to Jyn because of her assigned job, but there's only a ghost of amusement behind her eyes. Note to self, don't exterminate any mice. They might belong to this woman. Whatever a mouse is.

Her head shakes shortly, standing up from the open door and ducking her head as she steps out onto the hanger floor. "I wouldn't know. I don't know what a mouse is."

[juniberries]

She moves back a bit, making room for Jyn as she exits out of her ship. For a tick, Allura looks disappointed atthe response, eyebrows furrowing slightly with worry, but when the stranger says she doesn't know what a mouse is, she's more than willing to clarify just what it is she's looking for.

"Oh, perhaps you have a different name for them. A mouse looks like this." She turns the bouquet slightly in her arms to reveal the three brightly coloured space-mice just chilling. The smallest of the bunch waves up at Jyn.

"The one that's missing is pink, with bright red eyes."

[realists]

Jyn has never seen one of these downright adorable creatures in her entire life and she is charmed by it despite herself. They are offensively cute. Her life is a Greek tragedy so that's not much of a surprise she hasn't been privy to these creatures yet.

Her hand lifts automatically to wave back.

"I've never seen one of those before. We had droids that people called mouses, but they look nothing like these." They're equally adorable for droids, though, squeaking frantically when they are confused. Jyn doesn't know why they share a name, but she also hasn't heard the rainbow mice squeak yet.

001

[genice]

He'd told Sombra over a week ago he'd wanted to investigate the hangar, but not while drunk. He'd been joking as to the why, but only in the sense that he'd be liable to say the wrong thing. Right now, however, he's almost stupidly cheerful. Nothing much has changed about his situation, or how much he does or doesn't know about survival in space. Living in space? Yes, living. He doesn't want to just survive, not with Makkachin relying on him, and now, most certainly not with Yuuri on board.

How that results in a slightly too upbeat Russian wandering the hangar with respect for the people moving through who look like they know what they're doing is a mystery of his brain's connections. He takes his time moving through the area, observing the different craft, looking for familiarity and finding very little of it in the long run. It makes him more curious, enough so that much as he'd told Sombra, he's tempted to introduce himself and start asking to see cockpits, but he refrains. Calling out a friendly greeting or two, waving, nodding his head when it makes more sense.

Jyn is one of as many unfamiliar faces as anything else. Victor holds up a hand, waving without much more than a tilt of his hand to the side. "Is she yours?" He hazards a guess, letting the uncomplicated curiosity he feels shine past the low level happiness that's suffusing his every determined move forward.

[realists]

In hindsight, Jyn realizes that if she wanted peace and quiet, she should have scooted further back into the ship, but it holds a fair number of bad memories for her and every time she approaches the far window all she can see is sand, making her skin crawl. So she'd been sitting by the open door, legs dangling.

Her head pops up at the question, startled out of her own thoughts and while her head shakes automatically, it takes her a moment to properly answer.

"No." A beat, before she clarifies, realizing otherwise it seems like she's just loitering in some random ass ship where she doesn't belong. "It belongs to a friend of mine."

[genice]

Victor tips his head to the side, a small smile quirking his lips up at the corners. "Didn't mean to intrude on your thoughts," he says, an apology both sincere and also self-amused. He'd meant to reach out, so to speak, but not to startle.

He seems to have that talent even when he wasn't looking to surprise much of anyone.

Straightening, he rests one hand on his hip, eyes flicking past Jyn over the immediate section of the ship she's sitting in. On? Within. It's all about the same, isn't it? "I haven't seen anything quite like her before. Is it too forward to ask for her captain's name?" Belatedly, he gestures toward his chest. "My name's Victor Nikiforov. I'm one of the more recent people brought on board through the engine anomalies, for what it's worth."

Either she's been here long enough it has a meaning, or she's in a similar position. He's made worse introductions here, he suspects, but this cuts out the confusion on certain things he doesn't understand.

[realists]

Oh, so they're in the same boat. Well, same enough. She wonders, belatedly, if Cassian considers himself co-captain with K-2 but she doesn't bother to ask since the droid is not here. And if he were, she is sure he would be happy to correct everyone himself.

"Cassian Andor." She doesn't return the introduction in kind because she has the people skills of an AT-AT.

O2

[nodyinteam]

Nekomaru Nidai, a hulk of a teensger who looks and sounds much older than he is, happens to be a regular presence around the gym.

While passing near the climbing wall, he pauses when he hears the call for help and glances towards his origin. He then steps closer and crosses his arms as he looks up at the dangling woman. "Are you stuck up there? Is that it?"

[realists]

Growing up around militant extremist rebels means Jyn has seen her fair share of buff guys and gender non-specific aliens. She has beat up her fair share of buff guys and gender non-specific aliens.

And then there is this guy.

She can tell even from up here that he's, at least, a foot taller than her and it makes her bristle with the inherent spite of a person of diminutive size. She'd look like a porcelain doll next to him and about a breakable.

"I'd prefer momentarily lacking mobility." But yeah, she's stuck.

[nodyinteam]

He can't help but guffaw in response to that retort. "Gahahaha! That's one way of putting it!"

With that, Nekomaru than turns his attention to the button. Familiar with a lot of exercise equipment, it was easy for him to tell what it was for. "Then I guess I'll send some mobility your way!" With that, he forcefully pressed the button!

002. Spoilers are ok!

[indigo5a]

Gyms were never her kind of thing back home. The crowds, the stink of other people's sweat, the sight of spandex. The city streets at night provided just as good a stomping ground for her lengthy runs, and her loft was spacious enough for any combat practice or warm-up exercises she needed to stay in form.

Being stuck on a spaceship changes things a little bit. While it's definitely an improvement to the cramped aircraft carriers she served on years ago, there's still limited physical space for more private workouts. Shaw therefore has parked herself in the training facility a lot since her arrival. She's mostly seen at the boxing mats, laying waste to whatever practice dummy they have hanging around. She avoids the yoga section and the anti-grav room for obvious reasons.

She's walking past the climbing wall to get to the weight room when she hears someone calling from above. This girl looks familiar, probably because she prefers the same workouts as Shaw. That might be the only reason she stops.

"Sure, yeah."

She takes a look at the harness and follows its line down to the floor. She walks over and hits the auto-belay button.

[realists]

The line jerks taut for a moment as Jyn tips back up, before it slackens enough for her to repel herself back down to the mats. Next time she is just going to forgo the harness all together and just suffer if she slips again. It's not as if Saw ever gave her safety equipment during her training.

The second her boots hit the mat, she's crawling out of the harness with distaste, notably not having bothered with the assigned silver-purple onesie uniforms and sticking to her own utilitarian clothes, vest and weapons left in the bunk for the purposes of exercise.

"Thanks." Her chin lifts in a nod of acknowledgement, but she's not particularly loquacious.

[indigo5a]

"Hn," comes the equally verbose response. Shaw is perfectly fine with people who don't yap away with meaningless B.S.

She glances up at the climbing wall. It's not particularly her kind of thing, but she figures it must be some sort of adrenalin rush. She wonders if it's at all similar to how she feels when she fires a gun. (Shaw doesn't have many hobbies).

"I've seen you around the boxing mats," she says. And maybe she was mildly impressed by what she saw.

3 [can't beat the good ol' meet cute]

[canadese]

Ax spends an amount of time wandering around the shopping center that is probably embarrassing. Whenever he's sick of the atrium, he comes here. It's a combination of being so easily entranced by the bustle of it all like a magpie, and not being able to afford any of it because he hasn't been going to work. Mostly because he's not entirely sure what his job is, and grass is free.

Most of his time at the shopping center is just spent mooning. Especially when he's around the sections with a lot of restaurants. Unfortunately, he's used to having 360-degree vision by default, and is easily caught off balance by having to actually turn his head to look at things.

Because this is the only way this could possibly turn out, Ax is distracted by the smells of a particularly exotic restaurant at precisely the same time Jyn turns the corner, and he ends up crashing into her at full tilt. And promptly falls over, because he's not used to just having two legs either.

[realists]

Maybe it's because Jyn is used to being barreled into with more purpose and violence, but instead of falling, she simply steps back to steady herself, shoulders stiffening for a moment until she wills herself to relax and be a person.

She reaches down silently, holding out her hand to help him up.

[canadese]

He ignores her hand and gets up himself, though it takes a bit as he has to adjust to a different center of gravity. It's not out of rudeness--he actually genuinely doesn't know what she's holding her arm out for, or that it's generally considered polite to help someone up. Andalites rarely fall over, and their arms aren't strong enough to assist anyway.

When he's acceptably together, he looks at her blankly, like he's only just registering that she's even there.

"Hello. Did I injure you?"