sixthiterationlogs | (open) it seems my ship still stands no matter what you drop

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(open) it seems my ship still stands no matter what you drop

WHO: Chirrut and YOU
WHAT: Arrival and settling in
WHEN: first couple days after his arrival, so now plus 2 days
WHERE: the fountain and wherever else he ends up

WARNINGS: other than spoilers for parts of Rogue One I can't imagine there will be much to warn for here but I'll update as needed.

FIRST
He wakes up with a weight on his back and surrounded by water, a discovery that might be more troubling if there wasn't a force pushing him and a need to do something about it more immediately, temporarily displacing plenty fresh memories of rocks and trees and a skirmish with insurmountable odds. So he takes note of the direction and goes with it, doing his best to find the surface until he pops up, sucking in whatever air he can against the cough to expel the water.

Shore is harder to find. He calls out, as much in hopes of attracting someone's attention as trying to gauge the space he's in, then, so long as no-one answers, strikes out in a direction picked mostly by educated guess in search of shore.

SECOND
The next few days are spent getting oriented, and coming to grips with...whatever happened. He remembers dying, after all, or what certainly felt like it at the time, and waking up somewhere new, in one piece with no signs of it otherwise, well it takes some time reconciling the two. Not to mention finding himself...dampened isn't really the right word, but his awareness certainly isn't as wide as usual, although he grants that may be as much due to the loss of his echo box than anything else.

By now he's made himself an improvised staff, a sturdy length of wood as straight as he could find, and with it in tow he makes his way around, determined to familiarize himself with the place. With Baze here he doesn't need to learn it so quickly, maybe, but he's too stubborn not to at least try; this isn't a mission out of desperation, it's something else entirely and he's still not entirely sure what that means.

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Baze has been experimenting with one of the borrowed bows from the inn, now that he's been made aware that there are several, so he's out behind the inn when he hears it-- not the splashing, he's too far away for that, but the shout. That, he can hear, and that makes him stop short and look around with wild, startled eyes. That can't be. It can't possibly be, after all this time.

He knows where people first arrive, and it's in the direction of that voice, so he drops the bow and arrows-- he can collect them later, if he thinks about it-- and runs, calling ahead: "Chirrut?"

[b>ooc: If this isn't okay just let me know.]

Wanda was directly next to town when Chirrut happened to stubble across her path. She didn't have her abilities or anyway to call the force she used before but there were other skills that she could practice and she didn't want her time spent here to dull her abilities.

She shifted through the stances that she had learned, focusing on redirecting force instead of stopping it. She was small and quick and hoped to use that to her advantage. Her foot took a small step back as she pressed her weight down on her back heel. Wanda preferred to practice with others but sometimes that wasn't practical.

Her eyes were closed as she dropped and swept her leg out along the grass. Luckily, she didn't hit Chirrut but she did manage to kick his stick.

At the sudden force Wanda's eyes flung open. "Shit." She should have realized that he was there but she'd been to focused on her task and hadn't listened properly. Her powers often made up for it but now they were gone. "Sorry." She spoke again, her thick accent pulling at her words.

It's just a general shout at first; there's no reason to expect Baze to be here, not when he remembers what happened so clearly. Wherever he is, Baze shouldn't be here, but then he wouldn't have expected the afterlife to be so wet either, so what does he know really.

But then there's a shout in answer, and he knows that voice, almost as well as he knows his own.

"Baze?"

He tries to pinpoint a direction and splashes towards it, trying to feel ahead for something like shore, which at least doesn't prove to be that far away, so he's left grappling with the edge when Baze catches up, fingertips searching for purchase against wet stone.

That almost hurts, the sound of his name in that voice after months of knowing Chirrut was dead and Baze somehow wasn't, and then he's rounding the inn and heading for the fountain in the center of the village, and he can see him. "Chirrut, you old fool!" he growls, but he's catching at Chirrut's hands for support, and then his shoulders for stability, and his face as if to verify he's really there. "What are you doing here!" And what took you so long, he doesn't say, but thinks very fiercely.

He barely moved when she made contact, absorbed the impact and retracted the end of his staff out of her way, pulling it closer to himself. The smile came easily, unconcerned; if she'd been meaning to hit him she would have aimed better, if she'd meant to trip him she would have aimed higher. He'd like to think so, anyway.

"No harm done, it's not the first time. If I had been paying better attention myself I wouldn't have been in your way."

Just another sign things were different here; he should have been able to pick up on her movements to better anticipate where she would be.

He can't help but laugh at the growl, as much proof it's him as anything more tangible, even as he struggles with waterlogged clothing and what he can only assume is some kind of bag on his back. He grips Baze tightly in return, for the help at first, and then just to prove he's not hallucinating or something, fingers tracing lightly along the more prominent lines of him, up his arms to orient himself and then across his face just to be sure. He ends with a more firm tap against his forehead like he's being ridiculous, grinning at him as if he'd only been gone a few minutes.

"I told you I would find you."

Later he'll ask questions, and worry a little more. Now he's soaked to the bone with no idea what's going on but Baze is here, and that's plenty to deal with for the moment.

"I shouldn't be practicing with my eyes closed." She muttered, feeling a little shaken at the sudden introduction. She was about to say more when she noticed Chirrut's eyes. They were unfocused and almost white in color. He was blind.

He might have shrugged off her strike but she felt more like an ass now. "Are you new?" She asked as she walked over to her things, picking up a canteen of water that she had stashed in her bag.

"I think I would have remembered you before now." He's kind of memorable.

"You certainly took your time about it," Baze grouses, though his shuts his eyes briefly at the touch to his face, and Chirrut could feel a little smile there. He has to resist leaning in and just heaving his partner out of the water; Chirrut probably wouldn't appreciate being manhandled. Chirrut can tell Baze's face is a little sharper than it used to be, his body just a little thinner, and his voice a little bit raspier. He'd been a long time recovering from that bout with whatever the illness was, and it still shows.

"Step over the edge of the fountain, here. I'll take you inside and explain this place," he says. After a pause, he adds, "I've been stuck for months."

Bodhi doesn't seek Baze out particularly regularly, and his general awareness of the valley is.. lacking, despite periodic resolutions to become a proper resident and stop just drifting along. Catching up with his afternoon chores, he's certainly not thinking about any possible allies dropping in, just sweeping the accumulated dust off the porch of a house at the end of the road.

He stops and gapes for a moment when he spots the man he knew for a few days, more than six months ago now. Who, along with the rest of the Rogues and Galen (and Saw), has more to do with the person he is now than the bulk of the twenty-five preceding years, but who might as well be a stranger. Who's so much more Jedhan than Bodhi suspects he'd ever have been even if he hadn't run for the stars the first chance he got.

What do you say to that? For lack of a better idea, Bodhi lands on a soft, uncertain, "Um, hello?"

While Chirrut may be without his echo box here, he's not without his senses entirely; he'd had plenty of time to hone them over the years for one reason or another, and while his hearing now isn't quite where he's used to, it doesn't mean he can't hear the man's voice perfectly well. So while he's out for a walk, when the voice interrupts he stops and smiles, pleased at the development. He may not know the pilot very well, having only spent a few days with him under pretty tense circumstances, but that doesn't mean he doesn't already consider them something like friends. You don't spend a few days with people on a doomed mission without forming some kind of bond with them, after all.

"Bodhi? I heard you were around here somewhere."

"Don't sell yourself short, there is plenty you can do with your eyes closed," he quipped, mostly to dispel any self-recriminations she may have been struggling with. No reason to make her feel more badly about things than he assumed she already did, as far as he was concerned she'd learned whatever lesson could be made of it, no need to dwell.

So he leaned on his staff, taking a more relaxed posture, and nodded in answer to her question. "I am Chirrut Îmwe, I arrived earlier today."

"You're calm." She wasn't used to people being so relaxed when first arriving but then it might simply be because he's had time to compose himself. This world was a lot of things and surprising was definitely one of them.

"I'm Wanda Maximoff." Not that last names meant very much here. "I've been here for a few months." Which was her way of saying that she'd answer question that he had... if she had the answer anyway.

The frown fades for a few beats as he takes in the changes; how long has he been gone? But Baze is quick to explain, at least, and while it doesn't make him feel any better it at least explains the depth of his annoyance. Chirrut grips his arm firmly as he exits the fountain, then lets him lead the way as he starts to compile his list of questions.

The first among them, of course, being the obvious.

"How long has it been, for you? I hope someone's been feeding you," he adds pointedly, although at least it's teasing in tone.

"What use will not being calm do?" He offered by way of explanation; sure, he doesn't exactly hold the situation in the highest regard, but he's in one piece and in good health against all odds, he has what's most important to him here as well as a friend, he can figure everything else out later.

"It is nice to meet you, Wanda." He didn't have any particular questions to ask about the place, Baze had gone a ways to explain most of it already, but that didn't mean he was without questions entirely. "If I may ask, what were you doing when we crossed paths?"

"It isn't useful. Just common." She clarified with a soft roll of her shoulders. Not that he could see the motion.

His question made her pause and think of the best way to answer. "I was training." Or she was trying to train. Despite the fact that its been months without her abilities, Wanda found it difficult to adapt. She was learning but it was as if she suddenly had to learn to fight without an arm. She lost an extension of herself and it through her off balance.

"Things change quickly here. I plan to be ready for when they do."

"I feed myself half the time," Baze shrugs, heading for the inn first, since it's where both the food and his room is, and it's probably the most important place for Chirrut to familiarize himself with. "There is always food at the inn. But," he admits, guessing where the question came from, "there was a sickness recently." He doesn't exactly admit that he was basically bedridden for a week, because that's embarrassing, even (maybe especially) in front of Chirrut, but it's probably easy to read between the lines that he caught said sickness. "It's gone now," he adds, making sure Chirrut doesn't think he or anyone else here might be contagious anymore.

"You found Baze, then," he says certainly, a little relieved. That feels like too weighty a reunion for him to have even peripheral involvement in. He's glad it's been covered. Who else would know to mention Bodhi to Chirrut, after all? Most of the valley probably wouldn't mention Bodhi at all. He tends to pass under the radar. "Yes, um, here somewhere is... about right." This is painfully awkward. And it's mostly his own fault, probably. There's no etiquette for their situation, sure, but half that situation is that he spent his adult life as an Imperial pilot, and there's no getting around that now that there isn't a lot of blaster fire to smooth things over.

"I am glad to hear that," he offers, frowning a bit in light of the news, not so much because he's concerned it's still catching as the clear residual signs.

But Baze still hadn't answered his initial question. It makes him worry a little more, if he's that reluctant to share, but that's no reason not to prod him a bit. It's important, he feels, to know how long Baze has been here.

"So how long has it been?"

"Training for attacks."

It was a question, despite the tone of it, a tacit request for more information about the place along the lines of her implication. Not that it would make a difference to him one way or another, really, he's lived among war too long by now not to stay prepared, but he knew it would be important to know whether he needed to be on his guard here.

"I did, yes," he agrees, amusement clear enough in words and demeanor. "He was kind enough to fish me out of the fountain, so I suppose he found me."

Chirrut hasn't given much thought to etiquette in some time, so he just leans against his staff, making himself comfortable and settling in to chat.

"How long have you been here?"

"Among other things."

Wanda exhaled before shaking her head slowly from side to side. "Not against the people here but those watching us seem to be testing us for... something." She didn't know what but she felt herself pushed to the edge of her forbearance. "There is always another war to be fought."

After all, she had been created to be a weapon of one.

He really wants a number? Okay, he can have a number. "Five months," Baze answers finally. "Bodhi has been here much longer than that." Oh yeah, he probably should have mentioned the pilot's presence before using him as an example. So he clarifies: "Bodhi Rook is here, too, but no one else from Scariff. Almost everyone else here is from some planet we've never heard of. I don't think this is even a planet," he adds. "Its rotation stops sometimes."

Bodhi had to be fished out himself, though he didn't have the comfort of a familiar face once he got up on land. Though there hadn't really been many familiar faces that would have been comforting at the time, arriving as he had right from Scarif. Galen, maybe?

Though it seems likely that Chirrut, like the rest of them, came from Scarif, and he seems fairly calm. Maybe Bodhi's just a little more fragile.

"Um." He's not completely sure of how to answer that question. "A, um, a half a year, maybe more? The local calendar doesn't quite..." And he loses track of days easily, but no one needs to hear about the gaps Bor Gullet left in his head.

Which doesn't bode especially well for much of anything. But that's a question he certainly doesn't have the answer to.

"For what purpose?"

Because it's clear there must be one.

"Unfortunately."

Calm, but with more than a little sadness in it; he may have been trained for war, but that doesn't mean he has any love for it. Trained out of need, not desire.

"That's why you think we are brought here. For a war."

Chirrut has spent a very long time learning how to remain calm. Panic serves no purpose, only clouds judgment and muddles the senses.

That and he'd had plenty of time to work through it in private after his arrival. Calm is easy by now.

"I had heard the rotation of the planet is different. It must make the days difficult to account for."

"To make it very hot and dry up our river?" Baze says, making it obvious he's guessing. "Only now the river is back, it was only dry for a week or two. Whoever brought us here does not tell us things, Chirrut. And what happens has no pattern." Not that he's noticed yet, anyway. It's baffling, and frustrating. "There are steps here," he adds, pausing at the inn's porch. "I will have to get you a new stick."

He finds the edge of the step and moves up them, frowning in thought, turning over the new information in his mind. Faceless people who brought them here for a purpose Baze has not yet been able to uncover for months. There's another question, lingering at the edges of his thoughts. Something to bridge the gap between There and Here, Then and Now. Why there's a time difference.

But Baze offers a different direction, one no less important or relevant for the divergence.

"Unless it's still at the bottom of the fountain, but I somehow doubt that."

"No, all our things are gone. Our clothes are even different," Baze snorts, though Chirrut probably at least realized that for himself. "But there are trees, and I've been trying to make weapons, so there's something you can use." He opens the door with an audible creak, lets Chirrut in, then follows him inside. "This is the inn. I've been staying here, but there are houses."

"If it is a planet." Bodhi's had his doubts. A small space station would be easy to control, but they could be in this artificial environment on the surface of a world, too. It wouldn't make that much difference. "Everything's... It's been built, not sure how, down to the rocks and where the water is. If they can do that, they can do what they want with the timing of sunrise." All of which sounds better than Bodhi having just sort of forgotten to mark the passage of a lot of time, especially early on.

"I don't know." She lifted her shoulders in a shrug that he couldn't see. "I've been in experiments before. They aren't so unlike this place." Her accent thickened as distasted colored the tone of her voice. Wanda hated this place though the months have tempered her anger.

"We're brought here for some test." Or so it would appear.

Wanda eyed her company curiously, the light green of her eyes taking in random details of his features. "What do you think of this place?"

"I had noticed. Nothing that we came with other than ourselves. Although at least they gave us things to replace them."

He's noticed the backpack too.

He steps inside, waiting just inside the door for Baze to catch up. Soaking in the sounds and smells, orienting himself.

"A house would be nice."

"A test is something I can live with."

His entire life has been a test, in a manner of speaking.

He considered her words, weighing what he knows of the place so far.

"Interesting. Different. Still too new to make a solid decision, I think. But better than the place I came from, so far."

"Sounds either very nefarious or like a good thing nobody has bothered to fill anyone in on yet."

Which is plenty nefarious all on its own.

"I'll see what I can find and fix up," Baze promises immediately. Something without stairs for Chirrut to have to navigate, unlike here. He's avoided a house all this time mostly for lack of anyone to share it with, not wanting to have a place that felt empty. With Chirrut here to obviously fill the empty spaces, that simply isn't an issue anymore. "The kitchen is that way--" He nudges Chirrut's shoulder in the appropriate direction. "--and in here we share meals sometimes. The room I have is upstairs. There is a towel up there and you can change into something dry, and you can ask all your questions."

"It's... I think we might be starting to put something together. People have found things, the lab in the caves and what's on the other side of the canyon, um, well, we're getting there. But it's still theories." And he doesn't feel like he's helped a great deal.

She never forgot the day her powers began to develop. She had heard everything, every thought both good and bad. That was when she learned what the world was really like. You couldn't protect people from their own hate, fear and greed.

"Can you?" Wanda's voice was careful and curious but serious and hard. She had been part of so many experiments. She would not wish that torment on another person.

"Is it really better?" Wanda's voice lowered some. "Being a brought to a place where you don't have a choice?"

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(open) it seems my ship still stands no matter what you drop

FIRST

SECOND

\o/

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Totally fine! Yay Wanda!

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<3

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<3

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