sixthiterationlogs | We can push on through till morning; [OTA

We can push on through till morning; [OTA | MINGLE POST]

WHO: Mark & Anyone
WHERE: The Town Hall
WHEN: Feb 16, afternoon through evening
OPEN TO: EVERYONE! This is a mingle post!
WARNINGS: N/A - Please warn in thread subject lines if needed
STATUS: Open

When we all get together and have our town meetings, the truth is that a lot of times we don't come up with the sort of solutions we're looking for. I'm not trying to say we're complacent -- Or at least not all of us, not the people speaking up in the meetings -- but just that the nature of living here, such as it is, means that answers aren't exactly forthcoming.

But the latest meeting, the one about organizing, creating some kind of formal entity to oversee the group of us, it threw something into sharp relief for me: I've been talking for a long time about how we all need to be sharing our knowledge as a safeguard, but I haven't been doing much to make this happen beyond sharing my own personal knowledge. And that's really just not acceptable -- Not here, not when we've apparently got an entire section of the population asking for active leadership and another section who might just be too shy or apathetic to admit it.

So, I've been trying to figure out a way to kickstart this project. A way for people to even put out there the sort of knowledge they have to share. You have to start somewhere.

I've never had a problem getting people together to help with the field, but somehow we've been neglecting the town hall building right next to it this entire time. It's one of the biggest buildings in town, but it's still coated in dust and cobwebs, piles of leaves drifted into corners. The inn is starting to get a little crowded during meetings; it might be nice to have a little more room, a place where people come to share.

Regardless of how you feel about community leadership, I think most of us can get behind that.

A couple days before, I put out the call: A cleaning party. We get together, clean out the town hall, and afterward we have a little potluck. People can bring premade dishes, or we can cook out back over a bonfire. We can just be around each other, in a relatively safe space, just having a moment to relax and say hello. Meet someone new, find out where to begin.

After everything that's happened recently, I really think we could use it. I'm just hoping I'm not the only one who shows up.

[CLEANING PARTY & MIXER! Threads can take place during the CLEANING portion, after during the MIXER or BOTH. They can be indoors, upstairs, in the attic, out back by the bonfire, chowing down, whatever -- It's 100% cool to improvise! Mark will have expressly told folks this is about getting to know each other and what they can each do, too. There are some additional OOC notes here.]

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"My world's the same," Jean admitted. Still, she was a little crestfallen that this woman hadn't known Ren, couldn't tell her more about him or his life. He'd been fiercely private and she respected that but it made it hard to mourn him when she knew so little about where he'd come from.

"It's a big world with a lot of people. Just because we shared a country or a continent - I wouldn't have known them. Still, I was hoping you might have known a little more about him than I did."

"The most I can tell you is what would have been common for us both, in our galaxy. Though - it seems that not everyone is from the same time frame, so he might have been there earlier or later than I was. I can speak to what I'd heard about the years before I was born, but I can't speak much for what came after I arrived here," Jyn replies, trying to make her words soft; she can understand the disappointment Jean feels. She'd feel similarly, had the roles been reversed. "I can always ask Cassian, to see if he knew more, if you'd like. He's been here longer than I have, probably knew Kylo Ren at least a bit."

"That would be nice," Jean said, giving the woman a little smile. It was small, yes, but at least there was a chance that someone else was here who knew Ren, who could mourn with her.

"I liked him. He was hard to get to know," she admitted, "But I liked him a lot. I would want to know more about where he came from."

"I will be sure to do that, then, and report back what I might learn." There's a softness in her gaze as she nods. "I would think there are many from my galaxy who were - or are - difficult to get to know. From before my time, there have been many wars, a great deal of death. Those sorts of circumstances sort of - force you to wall yourself off, protect yourself. It becomes harder to trust those around you, since you're never entirely sure which side they might be on." She pauses for a moment. "I can only imagine the war continued after I arrived here. An unfortunate pattern."

"It's hard to get to know people when you know you might have to lose them," Jean agreed. It wasn't something she was used to yet, so much as a person could get used to that but she thought, as a mutant, it would be something she'd eventually have to accept. Their lives weren't safe.

"It's hard to not want to protect your heart, I think."

Jyn only offers up a very bitter, very jaded sort of smile, one that shows she knows the topic, the urge, the need to wall one's self off from the world all too well. She keeps her somber gaze on Jean's face for a few moments before letting it drop to the ground, exhaling a heavy sigh.

"War teaches you to do that from the start," she says very quietly. "You learn very quickly not to get attached." She doesn't even remember the insurgents who she'd fought alongside with Saw in those early days. They hadn't been around long enough for her to even memorize their names, or their faces. "It's easier to keep going that way."

"I'm sorry you have to know that firsthand," Jean said, her own smile soft and empathetic. It was a rough thing, knowing that getting close to someone meant risking impossible loss and having done it once, Jean didn't know if she could do it again.

"I wish you didn't. I...I've always been really empathetic, because of what I am? I can't help but feel what others feel."

Jyn clears her throat, shaking her head dismissively. It's not a happy topic - and certainly not one she likes to divulge to random people she's met. Or to people she knows well, even. It's why she's found solace in both Cassian and Bodhi - both of whom have lived their own versions of her life. Both forced to sever attachments, keep others at arm's length for protection. There are things that can go unsaid, unvoiced - that they'll all innately understand.

"I imagine that comes with its own string of difficulties," Jyn replies, trying to make her voice lighter. "I'm afraid I might be a little bit on the opposite end - generally unable to feel what others are feeling."

"I think they're both difficult. I'm sorry that...well, I'm just sorry. I don't think that's something that any person should have to deal with," Jean said. It was a difficult subject, to be sure, but it was nice to have someone to be able to open up to about it.

"Sorry, I'm completely dragging down the whole atmosphere of this place. Way to go me, right?"

"We don't have much choice in the cards we're dealt in life, do we? We simply have to make the best of the hand we have, try our hardest to make do. It goes for whether we feel everything or feel nothing." The corners of Jyn's lips twitch with her failed attempt at an encouraging smile. She decides she likes Jean, for what little she really knows of her. She seems kind, honest. She's certainly a polar opposite to herself in many ways, and she sort of likes the unpredictability of that.

"I don't mind," Jyn replies quietly. Truth be told, it's nice to talk about it, even if the subject matter is rather dark. She won't admit it outright, of course, but she feels it. "What was your world like?"

"It's different from this one. There's technology there," Jean said. "We have television and phones and tapes and things. It's weird to be here without any tv to watch or games to play or music to listen to. It's quiet and eerie."

She wondered how different it was for Jyn. She knew from talking to Ren that they had spaceships and things in his galaxy; Jean couldn't imagine getting in a spaceship and traveling to another planet but it was common for Ren.

"What about you? Do you miss how it was back on your own planet?"

"Similar to how it was for us," Jyn explains, "Though - I'm not quite sure what all of those things mean or are - television, phones, tapes. But if my assumption's correct, they're some form of entertainment? We had holodramas and holovids, holochess." Jyn had been particularly fond of the holodrama called The Octave Stairway, though it'd given her nightmares on occasion.

Jean's question makes the relatively pleasant twinge of her face falter into something darker, painful. She tears her gaze away, lets it fall to and rest on the ground by her feet. She offers a slight shake of her head as an answer before adding:

"Don't have a home planet to speak of."

"Holo? That sounds crazy," Jean said, grinning a little bit. It sounded so futuristic and amazing and her life seemed pretty backward in comparison. Still, both her life and Jyn's apparently were much more forward than this place was.

"We don't have that kind of tech on my planet."

"Really?" Jyn asks, lifting her eyes with surprise. "I'd never really thought of us being any more technologically advanced than any other galaxy, but I'd never given it a great deal of thought." She suddenly seems to remember the cup in her hand, swirls the liquid around in it pensively. "We had droids of all sorts for all different purposes, blasters, ships - interplanet ones. All sorts of creatures from all different home planets." She glances back up at Jean with a faint smile. "The holovids and holochess were considered fairly - well, primitive, where I'm from. Very basic."

"We don't have anything like that. If we had holographic anything, it would be cutting edge tech and only available to really rich people or scientists or something. Your world sounds like it's a lot more advanced than mine," Jean admitted.

"That's good, though, because that means I can learn about some things and if I ever get to go home, I can tell others."

"Perhaps; I'm afraid my expertise was never in the relative locations of planets to one another, or galaxies, for that matter, but I've met someone here who was from 2,000 years in the past from where I am - if our calendars are the same. Maybe it's the same for us."

"Hmm, maybe. I don't know. I haven't studied space a lot. We've only ever managed to go to the moon in my time," Jean pointed out.

"You know. Earth's moon. Not any other moons. Just the one orbiting our own planet."

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We can push on through till morning; [OTA | MINGLE POST]

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