come back to me, come back to me, and say my land is fair

[candor1]

WHO: see below
WHERE: see below
WHEN: Prompt #2 before Bodhi ports out to power update; others, flexible
WHAT: ALWAYS MULTILOG
1. Cas shows Jyn and Kay to each other through his memories
2. Poe and Cas get Bodhi drunk and countermand the imposter
3. Take Two of drinking with Han only this time with backup
4. Cas meets a flying Stark (and possibly a grizzly Mormont) [multi]
5. hunting Gem not knowing it's Gem or that she exists, but Sabriel may help [multi]
WARNINGS: None yet? But y'know, these guys… (Will update as necessary)

1. through my eyes (Neojedha - closed to K-2SO and Jyn Erso)
2. damage repair (De Chima #003/elsewhere - closed to Bodhi Rook and Poe Dameron)
3. the sort of thing friends do (Han's choice - closed to Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker)
4. the beauty of alien worlds (woods in De Chima - attn. Sansa Stark)
5. nothing to go on, going anyway (Maurtia Falls - attn. Sabriel, Gemini de Mille, OPEN)
6. anything at all (anywhere - anyone)

Comments

2. damage repair (De Chima #003/elsewhere - closed to Bodhi Rook and Poe Dameron)

[candor1]

[from here]

Cassian deliberately let the door make a clunk to announce his arrival. The surprise element was Poe in the doorway right behind him.

Bodhi wouldn't know it, who knew if Poe would, but Cassian adopted the affect and nearly the wording he'd heard Kes Dameron use several times on glum teammates. "On your feet, Rook. We're here to inebriate you."

[onlydoubts]

If the desired effect is startling him, well, Cassian certainly did so. Bodhi glances up sharply, ignoring the way his heart briefly jackhammered up into his throat. He blinks, looking between Cassian, and Poe, standing right next to him. "What?" His words take a moment to sink in.

"We're going drinking, I take it." Well, he wasn't going to complain, or protest this kind of outing. He clambers up on his feet, adjusting his collar as he does so.

[flightforfreedom]

Poe grins, though he doesn't recognise the phrase belonging to his father, it is certainly one he agrees with.

"That's right, pilot. On your feet."

I CAN CHANGE if this is too fast forwardy!!!!

[candor1]

Cassian smiled, clapped a hand around Bodhi's shoulders to shepherd him between them, and through the door.

It wasn't until they were well ensconced in a cozy booth in a De Chima pub (going smaller and quieter for Bodhi, admittedly for Cassian, and for the instigating circumstance) with first round in hand that Cassian said, "Poe showed me what… that… whatever that was pretending to be me… said to you, while I was gone."

[onlydoubts]

Once they're well situated (Bodhi appreciates the setting, loud and crowded wasn't always better, in his book). There's a drink in his hand, halfway to his mouth when Cassian brings up the conversation. He looks between the two of them and takes his drink, shrugging.

"Oh, that." He looks somewhat sheepish, embarrassed even. "Yeah, um. I should've known better than to think that was you. He just--" Got to him? "Sorry."

[flightforfreedom]

"Bodhi, you do not apologize. That piece of bantha dung was working hard to upset everyone. He's the only one who should feel sorry." It wasn't even in question, for Poe. He still wanted to punch that guy in the face.

Sorry, Cassian.

[candor1]

For what? Cassian wholeheartedly agrees.

"He got to me too," said Cassian grimly. "Hearing my own voice say that fierfek…" A Huttese expletive that was similar enough to a Jedhan one as to not necessarily offend Bodhi but also make the point. "Human minds—most sentient minds—are strange. We can know, abstractly, something isn't real. But if there's a good anchor, like a voice, it'll still register as real. It'll take work to stop feeling it."

More carefully (tentatively?) than before, Cassian put his hand on Bodhi's shoulder. "Work you should not have to do. So I'm gonna try to help offset it a bit."

He let himself show the concentration, of recalling beat for beat exactly what the imposter had said. So he could cancel out every lying insult in his fake voice, with his real voice saying the truth. (Thank you for being here, Poe. This needed another witness. For both of them.)

"Being scared isn't the opposite of bravery: it's its requirement.
"I knew you… an hour? before you impressed me with how much you'd been through and how determined you were not to put that on anyone else. You didn't know me either and tried to spare me your pain. I wish I'd told you how remarkable that was.
"You've never expected anyone to carry you. Even when we'd be so happy to.
"You have never bothered me—nor Jyn—nor Kay—and I don't know if you know how exceptional it is that Kay complimented you twice in a day; he doesn't even do that for me. He is hard to impress and you did. But anyway… in terms of 'bothering'… if you ever managed to (which would be astonishing), you'd still be worth it. There are worse things than being bothered. Just means you care about something.
"None of us are ever going to want you to leave. Our lives, the house, Neojedha, any of it. They're yours as much as ours. Even if you somehow managed to do something we found harder to cope with than any of the things we already do to ourselves. Which would be impressive. Anyway. I hear that's what happens in families."

That last needs a moment. As will the next. So Cassian pauses. Weighs his drink a moment in his hand.

At last, quietly, "As to whether you did or didn't follow my orders on Scarif.

"My order to you was: 'Keep the engine running.'

"That's it. You did it. I never said 'get us out alive'. I knew you wouldn't be able to. No one could. That was never the plan. You were our only way out of there… so I said it aloud to give everyone the daydream that it could happen. None of us believed it. We didn't have to. Daydreams don't have to come true to serve their purpose, which is to make what's happening easier to deal with. I said it aloud also so that you wouldn't forget how valuable and important you were and that we trusted you. Not to put the burden on you of thinking it had to happen. I'm sorry for that. You obeyed my order. You didn't fail.

"In fact… you succeeded so many times. Every step of the way… it was all you. We couldn't have done any of it without you. And unlike the rest of us, you chose it. Our lives were stolen. You chose to give yours up. Because you saw the sort of things that had been done to people like us.

"I will fight anyone who tries to say you're a coward or a failure for that. Including 'myself'. Including you."

[onlydoubts]

Bodhi looks from Poe, after his outburst -- somewhat startled, and then to Cassian. He stared down at a drop of condensation on the bottle, and then up at both men again. Searching for any sign that this wasn't just some other imposter, but he continued and his doubts on that were quelled and quieted as Cassian spoke, directly to him. There's no cruelty in his voice, but genuine kindness and honesty.

Bravery had never come easy to him, when he'd been on the shuttle on Scarif, he hadn't felt guilty about remaining out of the battle, and had in turn felt guilty for not feeling any kind of guilt. Doubt came easier, second guessing -- thinking the worst of every possible situation. He'd not been able to sway Saw into believing him despite his very real desperation, and determination -- hadn't stopped him from being tortured, but he'd flown them into Scarif - had helped to get through to the Rebels not because he believed in himself.

But because he had to. Failure wasn't an option when there was so much on stake that he had to accomplish.

Listening to Cassian now, it wasn't going to undo all the doubt and the low self worth instilled over years of conditioning. When you're only useful for the job you do, or as disposable as the thousands of others in your position... Only the officers were exempt from knowing this. What it was doing was giving him an idea of just how much he meant to them, and them to him -- a family, that's what he'd just called them. Jyn. Cassian. Kay. He counted his new friends, as well.

And to that last part... "I think I knew it, that we weren't going to... but I'd still hoped. It was just easier to blame myself."

Another by product of the conditioning, perhaps. We couldn't have done it without you. Had anyone ever praised him so much as this? A mediocre student, and then a low level cargo pilot just trying to make enough to get by?

If the way his eyes burn in a way that's not at all related to the alcohol already in his system, it's unlikely. "Alright, I get it. You don't have to fight me, for me to get it. You both planned this conversation, didn't you?"

Thank you.

[flightforfreedom]

Poe just drank quietly, feeling decidedly a third wheel in the conversastion, though he listened carefully. Scarif was legendary, in the Rebellion. Keep the engine running. Of course he'd never known exactly what happened on the planet surface. No one really did. The transmission was sent, but the Death Star had ended whatever rescue could have possibly happened. It was spoken of as a suicide mission, because, in the end, it was.

So it was very strange listening to two veterans - two veterans who had died there - talk about it.

When Bodhi spoke to them both, Poe only gave a lopsided smile and used his drink to gesture in Cassian's direction. "His idea, not mine. Don't give me any credit for it."

[candor1]

Cassian can read body language and microexpression; doesn't matter that what Bodhi actually said was meant to undercut and diffuse, the way he said it—or things around the way he said it—makes Cassian's eyes crinkle and soften as he grins. And his shoulder relax too.

Allowing, for one thing, him to lightly punch Poe in the shoulder. No, no credit at all. Only for being a rock for all of us and helping everybody and living up to/making us remember what it's like to call the Rebellion home. Maybe some of that will come through just in the gesture. 'Cause Cassian's definitely speeched out for the moment.

"Insofar as yes," was all he said. "That can be the end of it if you like." More unspoken: I won't bring it up but you can.

[onlydoubts]

"Yeah, well... I'm glad that you're here." To Poe, directly because he wants to make sure he knows how much the other man being here -- for him, for his friends, means to him, as much as Cassian's words.

To that, he nods. Appreciate that. "So, uh." Bodhi raises his glass. "A toast?"