open;

[firstrebel]

WHO: Hera and Y O U
WHERE: Various
WHEN: The first few days after Hera's arrival, Jan 4-7 or so
WHAT: Hera adjusts. Or pretends to. Or actually just tries to sneakily figure out what's actually going on here, either/or.
WARNINGS: none as of yet

001. Exploring

Naturally, Hera's first thought upon being kidnapped (again) was that this was some sort of new ploy by the Empire. Maybe they'd developed a new way of getting information from dissidents?

But the more she sees and hears, the less likely that seems. Oh, sure, some of the Empire's worst are devious, even cunning, but by and large, they're not imaginative. Why be subtle, or use trickery, when there's brute force and truth serum?

So, okay, she's probably not somehow imprisoned on an Imperial Star Destroyer. That leaves the story she was actually given, or... what? Hera means to find out, and to that end, she is exploring every inch of this ship, this Eluvio, that she can get away with. She might pretend to be on a cleaning crew or something, to get into a room here or there. If nothing else, the more she knows about this ship, the better equipped she'll be to - run away from it the first chance she gets.

002. Shopping district

"You expect me to what?" she shouts at the unsuspecting shop owner. Incredulous. Her voice rising, angry, sharp. "Let me make one thing clear, you pile of blurrg droppings: I am no one's model, or dancer, or pretty piece of furniture."

The tirade continues for approximately eight minutes, before Hera storms out of the clothing shop and into the shopping district, ready to glare daggers at anyone who might even think about putting her in a dress against her will.

003. Atrium

Truth be told, the Ghost feels pretty lonely to Hera. She's glad to have it with her, she supposes. If nothing else, it'll probably end up being her getaway vehicle. It's hers, and she couldn't do without it. But it's also empty now. It's just her. Not even Chopper is around to liven things up a little, like in the old days before she met Kanan. It's depressing, so she has to find someplace else to spend time quietly. The Atrium fits the bill relatively well. The zen garden even reminds her vaguely of the province on Ryloth where she grew up.

Hera's not big on meditation - that's really Kanan's thing. But she finds herself sitting, watching the calm waters. Whatever this situation is that she's in, she's going to have to get herself out. Make plans. Find allies. She's done it before, she can manage it again. She has to get back to her family.

Comments

2

[canadese]

Ax happens to be nearby when the yelling starts, and he decides to hang around when it seems apparent, from what she's saying, that it's from yet another new arrival. He likes to keep track of them, and considering this person's temperament it's likely she'll show herself eventually.

He is not wrong. When Hera storms out Ax is surprised to see that she's another nonhuman! He'd thought he was the only one on the ship, and even if she is bipedal it's nice to find another outlier.

(Not that Ax looks like one, overmuch, at the moment. He stays human when going out in public, so as not to alarm people. The way he stares at her blandly might be a little unnerving, though.)

"What is a blurrg?" That's a good conversation opener, right.

[firstrebel]

"What?" Hera, as expected, turns what's left of her ire against the innocent question-asker, momentarily startled. Then, she takes a breath.

"I'm sorry," she says, quieter, less angry. "It's been a stressful few hours."

02

[taggingwomprats]

Luke definitely recognizes the look of a twi'lek - it's actually what draws him over toward Hera, despite the tirade and the fact that she looks ready to burn a hole through a bulkhead with just the power of her gaze. He gives her a moment to sort of storm away and then he filters over through the crowd of shoppers, trying to get her attention in as polite a way as he can.

"What was that all about? Anything I can do to help?"

He only caught a few (muffled) words. And he's willing to chip in for someone who looks like they might be from his neck of the woods. Or anyone, really. It's how Luke is.

[firstrebel]

She has to walk a little ways, to calm herself. She doesn't want to snap at an innocent bystander, after all. It's not their fault she's in this situation - as far as she can tell, a lot of the people on this ship were kidnapped, just like her.

There's no sense making enemies when one could be making allies, after all.

The polite question has her turning, and sighing at the young man. "Oh, no, not unless you have something to do with assigning jobs. Apparently whoever brought me here expects me to wear strange clothes and stand around looking pretty."

Which, given her people's history of being enslaved and objectified for their "exotic" looks, is not sitting well with her.

[taggingwomprats]

"Really?" Luke pulls a face and glances back at the clothing shop. He can respect that there are a lot of different jobs that need to get done on board a spaceship, but he's finding a lot of the jobs he's run into - and the one he's been assigned - seem like complete nonsense.

"Why? There are tons of things that need doing on a ship this size. Why would wearing clothing be one of them? That's just... kind of a waste."

Luke pauses.

"Then again, these are the same people who want me to edit jokes."

[firstrebel]

Why is an interesting question, and one that Hera is already contemplating, even as her temper begins to abate. "It's not a war ship, for one thing. Or not primarily a war ship. They seem to be telling the truth in that regard. Whoever they is."

[taggingwomprats]

"Even for, say, a science ship it seems like they have an awful lot of non-essential positions," Luke replies, glancing down the row of shops, "Feels more like some sort of... cruise ship or something. Which is just strange..."

[firstrebel]

"Maybe. Entirely civilian, perhaps? A colony ship, or, like you said, maybe a cruise ship of some sort?" Hera shakes her head a little. "But if that's the case, what's causing these anomalies they claim are responsible for bringing us here? None of this makes any sense."

[taggingwomprats]

"I think their hyperdrive, but I've never heard of any kind of hyperdrive pulling people in from halfway across the known universe," Luke grumbles, settling his hands on his hips, "Even an Interdictor isn't going to do that. There's got to be something else going on. At least, that's what I think."

1, whoops I'm not sorry, but let me know if this is not okay

[winscenario]

Jim isn't exactly filled with trust and optimism either, and it's with a fair amount of distrust that he's been exploring the Eluvio. The larger and most populated areas are the first, and that way he gets to cross paths with a number of people, both the native crew and others that were brought here the same way he was.

At least the place seems fairly harmless— although he knows better than to take that at face value. It could very well be a trap, or there could be more to the story they've been told. Rumors are fleeting and quick to spread, though, so Jim tries to keep his mind open and his judgment impartial. He'll trust hard evidence, until then he's not taking anyone's word for it.

Closer to the end of the day, Jim decides to check out the quarters assigned to him on the Eluvio. He's got the Enterprise and he's definitely planning on sleeping there more often than not, but he can't say it's not convenient to have a place on the main battleship too, when he's just too tired for a shuttle ride back to his ship, or an emergency situation might actually prevent him from traveling back and forth quite so freely.

The thing is, he hasn't been here long enough to figure out how the lock system on the doors works, and it's his mistake to assume it just locks on its own. So he's stepping out of the bathroom after a long shower —a shower with running water is a commodity he doesn't get to have on board a starship, so that's a nice perk—, only to startle when he realizes there's someone else in the room.

"Jesus—!" Well at least he got his underwear back on. Downside is that he only got his underwear back on. Which he'll fix right away. "You could've tried knocking first?"

no i love it

[firstrebel]

Hera has gotten pretty good at making herself more or less invisible in plain sight when she needs to - at least around Imperials, who tend to believe what they want to believe, especially of a Twi'lek.

It's as much a surprise to her, discovering a half-naked human male in one of the rooms she thought would probably be unoccupied, but she does no more than give him the briefest glance before ducking her head. She'd at least had the presence of mind to grab a bucket and mop for her tour of the sleeping quarters to explain her presence, so she falls into a servile kind of stance. This guy isn't an Imperial, but maybe he'll react like one. Or maybe she'll have to punch him, who knows?

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaims, feigning shock. "I thought this room was unoccupied!" Hopefully he won't notice that the bucket is empty and unused.

excellent

[winscenario]

Hopefully she'd decide she didn't need to punch him, because really scaring the shit out of him seems to be more than enough for a first meeting. He relaxes once he realizes she's not one of the weird natives, or at least doesn't act much like one, and heaves out a sigh while tugging his pants back on.

"No, it's fine," he shakes his head. Not like he's that much of a prude about being naked in front of other people, so he's not about to get pissed at her, even if she did just barge into what's technically his room. "Should've probably... figured out how to lock the door."

His eyes fall to the empty bucket while he talks, train of thought derailing. "I think you forgot something. I mean, assuming you're here to clean," he leaves that open. Just in case cleaning wasn't the ultimate goal here.

[firstrebel]

So, he is more observant than the average stormtrooper or mid-level Imperial bureaucrat. Which isn't saying much, but Hera keeps her guard up, regardless.

"What can I say?" she says, still feigning at least a little bit of innocence. "I'm new here. Figured it couldn't hurt to have a look around. Beyond the official tour."

[winscenario]

Jim considers that, then raises his eyebrows and offers a shrug. "Right. Fair enough." Not like he can talk much, when he himself has been going around trying to poke his nose into all sorts of places. Especially places where he's not supposed to go.

"Too bad we can't sneak into restricted areas, though," for now, anyway. Jim fully intends to keep trying. He might just do it on his own so he doesn't drag anyone else into trouble along with him.

He grabs his shirt and shrugs it on, glancing at her. "I'm sorry to tell you that my room doesn't hold a lot of interest. Not as far as information on this ship goes."

[firstrebel]

"Oh, give me a few weeks," Hera says with a faint smile. She's made a career out of sneaking into restricted areas. She just needs some time to figure things out.

"But that's okay. Interesting people can be just as good as information. My name's Hera."

[winscenario]

"Really, just a few weeks?" He raises his eyebrows, somewhat impressed. If she really manages to do that, then Jim will have to make sure to keep her around, as he very much wants in on those restricted areas himself.

"Depends on the questions you ask them," he smiles, though, nodding. "Jim. Nice to meet you."

Gesturing to the mop and bucket, "So are you still gonna clean my room or should we go see if we find a more exciting place to explore?"

003

[indecisions]

There's only really two places on this ship that Rey actually feels comfortable enough to stop moving for half a second -- the hangar, surrounded by the planes and ships, and in the atrium. That's where she is now, and since hanging out in trees has gotten boring she's just wandering idly and without any real purpose through the grass. Honestly she prefers to avoid the zen gardens ( nothing personal she's just seen enough sand ) but the water is enough of a draw to make her way in. Not much of that on Jakku, that's for sure.

There's only one other person there. It'd be weird not to say anything, right? She could probably breeze past, or come back later, but curiosity gets the better of her. Twi'lek's don't exactly come to her planet very often, so against what might be better judgement telling her to just leave it, she asks: "Do you want to be alone?"

At least she's off to a polite start?

[firstrebel]

That's an interesting question, to come from a stranger, Hera thinks. Does she want to be alone? No, not really. She wants to be with her crew, her family. She misses them. A stranger's company can't fill that hole in her heart, but that's not the stranger's fault, either.

"Not necessarily," she says, glancing up at the young woman. "I just don't really know anyone yet. I just got here."

003.

[realists]

The zen garden is something of masochist choice of places to linger for Jyn. She doesn't have a load of overly fond memories of places full of sand. Then again she doesn't have a load of overly fond memories at all so maybe she shouldn't try to pick out good ones. Maybe it's immersion therapy that has her coming back here over and over again.

Either way, self-inflicted torture or therapy, she's caught in a thunderstorm of thoughts when she turns to leave and finds someone else around.

"You're Twi'lek." Oh, well spotted, Erso. In her defense, she's only pointing it out because she recognizes her. (Not her, but her race.) While Eluvio has some things she recognizes (her boys, namely, and High Galactic), most of it is wildly out of left field so seeing something she does recognize is worth the outburst.

[firstrebel]

If anything, the outburst from a stranger causes Hera a certain amount of amusement. She chuckles, and only gives a quick glance to the girl.

"You know, people from our galaxy become pretty easy to spot when you look like me," she says. "An... unexpected side effect. I can tell you beyond a doubt that we're in a different galaxy, just based on the number of humans I've met who had no idea what a Twi'lek is."

[realists]

She shakes her head briefly like she's shaking herself out of being startled. Get your shit together, girl.

"There's quite a few of us now." Which is weird and slightly less than comforting, but Jyn feels like she benefits the most from this anomaly so she's hasn't voiced any complaints. She will deal with this garbage for her Bodhi and Cassian.

Not Kay though, not until he admits they are friends.

[firstrebel]

"There do seem to be a lot of us," Hera agrees. None of her crew, though. A few people she knows, but no one she considers a close friend. Acquaintances, allies, at best. This young woman, though, is still unknown.

"It makes me wonder just how random this supposed anomaly that brings us here actually is," she adds, carefully.

[realists]

"You're not the only one." Not that she is willing to fight being pulled here with her friends, if only because she's not willing to fight the anomaly bringing Bodhi and Cassian here instead of leaving them to their fates on Scarif.

And Kay. She guesses.

(And Kay, definitely. The lady doth protest too much.)

"Maybe for every person who is unused to space travel being possible, they bring in one who was raised with it."

[firstrebel]

"To know that, we'd have to know some basic statistics on everyone here." Which, to Hera, sounds like something someone here probably knows, but she'll have to do some digging to figure out who.

And unlike Jyn, perhaps, Hera is doing all this with an eye to getting out, going home.

"But there's definitely something more going on here than we're being told."

[realists]

"You're not the only one that thinks that, either." Jyn has given herself the luxury of not caring, but she knows that Cassian is not her and Cassian is probably far better equipped than her to find out what they need to know anyway. If they need someone beat up though, she's called dibs.

"Maybe there's a directory somewhere."