OPEN RP POST • STAR WARS MINGLE ⭐️

[forceshadowed]

whatever it is you've been doing
you are now in Canto Bight!


That's right. It's just like those jamjar games. One moment you're minding your own business, and then... poof!
You're in Canto Bight for no apparent reason.
(Or you've always wanted to be here, and you finally did it. Whatever, we're not the cops.)

That's not the weirdest part, though. Because you might be seeing double.
It's like the time-space continuum collapsed over the city
and now doubles and multiples of you or people you like hate want to kill know are appearing.
So go have fun with that!



HOW TO PLAY:

• Toplevel your character. Different version/AU, different toplevel please.
• Add a short background or link to an info post, and indicate prefs. TELL US WHAT KIND OF SHENANIGANS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR. Shipping, smut, family reunions, dark side shenanigans, murder, a Ben Solo smackdown...
• Troll Reply to others.
• Lather, rise, repeat.
• Please note that while the intent of this post is for characters from various Star Wars verses to mingle, you don't need a Star Wars character to play! All characters are welcome — characters AU'd into SW, characters having interacted with SW characters in games and memes, fandom OCs, ship babies, etc.
• Have fun and be excellent to each other! ♥

Comments

[candor1]

Kay emoting, in whatever flavor, made the edges of Cassian's mouth curve upward. The smile was stopped in its tracks by what came next. I was deactivated.

(Climb. Locking the vault door now.

How could it still be so haunting with Kay right here?)

—No, Kay was right: Cassian did hate casinos. But he was so extremely glad to hear Kay say it—be here to say anything.

"All right. Tell me something I never knew about you. Something I wouldn't make up." First things first: confirm they were both real. They could handle or solve whatever else, after that, together.

[icanblendin]

He knew that question wasn't supposed to shut him up, or send him into some kind of internal overload, but he didn't know if there was anything about him that Cassian didn't already know, it wasn't as if he kept things to himself, really.

Though after a moment he said: "I never calculate the probability of your death before a mission, only of your survival." Which were two different things as far as Kay was concerned, and something oddly superstitious, for a droid. But it probably made a certain amount of sense, considering that Kay had never done any of the borderline religious things that other droids did, thanking 'The Maker' for things, that corner of his consciousness -however manufactured that consciousness was- needed something to do as well.

[candor1]

(Cassian had worried a bit about that when he asked. One of the things he treasured most about Kay—one of the reasons he never tried to "correct" that byproduct of the reprogram, along with possibly not being a good enough slicer—was Kay's direct, unfiltered honesty. What a contrast to the rest of Cassian's existence of diplomacy, tactical truths and outright lies.)

The answer, though… yes, too—in a way—simple to have occurred to Cassian on his own… and just…

Speechlessly, Cassian placed his palm on Kay's plating, and just took a moment.

Finally, he cleared his throat. His voice was still a little thick when it came. "Okay. …Well… when I was on my own, before I had you to keep me company on flights, I'd keep the HoloNet tuned onto children's programming." It was the only thing reliably free of what he got enough of at work. "My favorite show involved talking loth-cats."

[icanblendin]

If Kay had the capacity to furrow his brow, he would have, instead he dimmed his ocular diodes briefly as he made a quiet, somehow thoughtful sound, low and humming, "Yes. I remember. It was playing on the way back when I first fell in with you."

And it had been a literal fall, he'd been giving chase, Cassian had hit him with the equivalent of an EMP and he'd fallen forward into the ship instead of backwards out into the corridor and there had been nothing for it but to slap a restraining bolt on him and bring him along. One of those things that hadn't been on purpose at first, but had definitely been explained that way later. The admission was probably something else that Cassian didn't know, mostly because no one ever asked Kay about that night, so the fact that he was at least partially online during the trip had never come up.

For the time being, however, he straightened again, "So, we're both who we say we are, to the best of our ability to determine, what's our next move, Cassian?"

[candor1]

Be dumbfoundedly grateful as almighty kark. Have a moment of lightheaded, superstitious thought about the Force via Chirrut’s prayer or Jyn's necklace or sith-knows what…(?!?) Then… very good question.

"Find out when it is. Check the docking bays and see if we recognize anything as ours." Cassian considered working on the first (with the help of an intoxicating drink in his hand) and sending Kay to start on the second; except being an unaccompanied droid in Imperial or extralegal space—aka almost anywhere—was a risky thing to be. No. He'd just gone through losing Kay. Now he had him back, however that was, Cassian was sticking close.

If they did have a ship here, its computer might answer questions like the date—and where they'd been before this—and possibly even why. So start there.

Cassian belatedly looked down at his own clothes. He was wearing his usual nondescript shirt, trousers, and Corellian-cut field jacket. Not what he'd been wearing on the beach. Okay, okay, all that meant for now was that he didn't have to play an Imperial officer. Worry about anything else later. Including where his personal transponder (usually on the breast of the jacket) had got to. He rapped his knuckles lightly (lovingly) against Kay's chestplate before dropping his hand. "Doubt anyone'll ask, but if they do, you're my bodyguard, and I'm someone too important for them to recognize or be told. Good?"

[icanblendin]

"I would be a more convincing bodyguard if I had a blaster." It was a token argument at that point, he didn't expect that he was actually going to get one, partly because that had been the agreement with Rebel command, he could stay but he couldn't be armed, but also because here Casino Security were the only ones with blasters and that was a problem that could be worked out at a later time if it became necessary.

One of the good things about being as tall as he was, especially in comparison to Cassian, was that he'd be able to see someone coming their direction and move to intercept or just to block without even breaking stride, it was something that had happened in the past and might well be needed here, but he couldn't be sure yet.

"If we can find an information console we can find where the hangars are." It was possible that they were just in the lower levels of the casino, but he couldn't be entirely sure as he hadn't plotted the entire layout of the building just yet.

[candor1]

I would be a more convincing bodyguard if I had a blaster. "No you wouldn't," murmured Cassian. "You know the drill." It had been bad enough, among Cassian's closest allies, him bringing a killdroid among them. With the Clone Wars in living memory. Let alone claiming it as a partner. If Cassian's Separatist background had been more widely known…? He never pushed them over the edge by allowing Kay to be armed. Here, in such "civilized" territory, where Droids Rights were not remotely discussed, it would be even more conspicuous.

Anyway. Did Cassian even have a blaster on him? Not the one he usually wore openly in a hip holster. He found he couldn't tell just by sensation if he had his hidden ankle holster loaded. At Canto Bight, with all its security scans, he really suspect not.

"Info console," he agreed. "This way." It was a long time since he'd been at Canto Bight before, but one more memory/hallucination test: see if he could find his way back to the consoles.

He did. (So was that a point in favor of real or not real? …Real. Have to act, at least, as if it's real.) He opted to lean as if drunk against the side of the machine so Kay could be the one to access and/or interface.

[icanblendin]

A direct interface would definitely be faster, though ran the risk of tripping alarms, and while Kay had some experience in getting past those, he hadn't ever done so with something to the level of Canto Bight's security, and so after a few brief seconds where he calculated probabilities of success, he opted instead for just operating the console like any other customer, if, perhaps, at a greater speed, able to comprehend and retain the information more quickly than a human would.

His eyes flickered, dimming and brightening again a few times as he worked, finally straightening and angling his head towards Cassian: "The hangar on site is three levels down, above the brig, but it is only for personal speeders and light shuttles, the pleasure yachts. Larger ships are across the street and we'll need an ID ticket either way, proof that our ship is already there." Which he knew he didn't have on him, and was curious whether or not Cassian did.

[candor1]

Cassian's mouth tightened and his eyes unfocused, in thought, even as he double-checked his pockets. Nyope, he didn't have one either.

"Can we get the date at least?"

[icanblendin]

That took just another moment of tapping through screens before he finally said: "Only local date, and." He stopped short, having another moment of intense calculations because while it couldn't be right, there were no malfunctions in the software that he could track without doing an interface, which he still wasn't going to.

"I don't see how it can be correct." He finally concluded, just bringing up the default screen with the local date, time and weather so that Cassian could see for himself.

[candor1]

Looping his arm around Kaytoo's middle, to lean on him instead of on the console, Cassian squinted at the screen. The squint turned into a flummoxed frown.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting for the year listing, but it wasn't the numeral 0.

Year 0?!

Last Cassian had known, the year had been 3277.

…3277 LY.

The listing was 0 ABY.

"What the feke fedding calendar is 'ABY'?"

[icanblendin]

He shook his head, just a little, not enough to be obvious to anyone but Cassian, "If I knew I would have said." He was already scanning for any kind of unsecured holonet connection so he could find recent -or historical- events without triggering anyone to come help them personally the way that kind of search might off of a casino information console.

He wasn't finding any, which was to be expected, but was still bothersome, "We should go outside." He finally said, "I may be able to access more information out from under the casino's security."

[candor1]

"Okay." Cassian turned, with drunklike imbalance, and scanned the exits. "I think that way is beach."

…another lightheaded, superstitious thought gripped him: if he stepped onto a beach, would he suddenly go back to that beach…?

His hand tightened on Kay's arm as he got a grip on himself, too. Don't be a child.

[icanblendin]

That grip on his arm was enough to reveal that there was some kind of hesitance in the suggestion that Kay didn't understand, but also wasn't going to question, so instead of making a beeline for the door that led to the beach -one that he was fairly sure was a private section of said beach for casino-goers, he instead turned to take them out a side door that led to a promenade and up to upper levels of balconies and walkways.

"Let's get you into the fresh air." He said, managing to sound patient and exasperated at once, as a bodyguard to a drunk too-famous-to-know person ought to, at least in his opinion. But also because being higher up would let him get a better idea how accurate the facility map inside had been, and give him better range for finding a non-Casino, non-secured holonet connection to figure out what the kriffing hells was going on.

[candor1]

Let's get you into the fresh air. Was Kay in character saying it to Cassian's cover, or just Kay saying it to Cassian…? Well, the best lies were built on the truth. Cassian let himself, for a moment, feel what he was feeling; lean too heavily, bent forward over himself, on Kay's arm; breathe raggedly and impatiently wave off anyone who even got into his peripheral vision; and let Kay guide them both to his choice of exit.

[icanblendin]

All in all it didn't much matter if it was their cover or if it was just Kay, because the path to the upper promenades and the roof was clearer than Kay had expected it to be, but he wasn't going to complain about it either, because it meant no one was going to stop them and ask stupid questions.

He steered Cassian towards one of the benches to sit where Kay would be able to lean against the high ledge in sentinel mode while he tried to find what he was looking for, eyes flickering faintly as he did so.

[candor1]

It did feel easier, being outside.

And to have the one person (yes, person) in his life again that Cassian had ever allowed himself to lean on…

He sat unresisting where Kay placed him, and looked out at the vista of Canto Bight, possibly taking in ambient information, possibly just… well, looking. Torn between not trusting the reality that had impossibly dumped him here from Scarif, and possibly wanting to trust that if he looked away from Kaytoo, Kay would still be there when he looked back.

[icanblendin]

Finding an unsecured personal comm signal took longer than expected, and in comparison using that signal to find the nearest library with any sort of informational texts for what he needed took no time at all, especially with as quickly as Kay collected and comprehended information.

Though once he had he was still and silent for a while longer, mostly just trying to figure out how to explain, finally just starting with the easiest, most factual information.

"ABY is 'After the Battle of Yavin. The destruction of the Death Star. The new system took a while to be ratified and accepted as the new galactic standard by the Republic, but it was, and has been being used retroactively." That was the easy information, the next wasn't, and he wasn't sure why, it wasn't like it was anything they hadn't both been thinking already: "We succeeded, it seems. But we also died. All of us. There were memorial services held on quite a number of planets."

[candor1]

Cassian was sitting very straight and still by the time Kaytoo finished.

What to ask first…?

…was there anything to ask at all…?

At last: "If this is year zero, it must have just happened." So no good to ask whether the destruction of the Death Star equalled the end of the Empire (he kinda doubted it) and what came next, and how successfully.

It may be a foolish question—why should it matter to him, compared to the rise and fall of civilizations and so many more lives—but: "Was Yavin itself all right? …Did the Death Star get anywhere else before they got it?"

[icanblendin]

"Yavin survived, Alderaan did not." Even Kay knew that had been about fear and not any kind of legitimate military target. Certainly Bail Organa had suspected ties to the Rebellion, but no one had been able to prove it, and even if they had, a simple assassination instead of the destruction of an entire planet would have been a better deterrent.

He finally turned his head to actually look at Cassian again instead of off into some middle distance while sorting information, "It has been some months, but not yet a full year."

[candor1]

Alderaan? How…? wha…? the feke…?!

Dumbly, Cassian said, "Alderaan is a Core planet."

(Yeah, so? NiJedha had been a holy city. But still… Mid-Rim. And Scarif: Outer Rim. He thought, surely, if nothing but Imperial elitism…)

Alderaan. 'Planet of beauty'. Isatabith Rain Forest, Cloud Shape Falls, starblossoms and thrantas…

Glad as he was that the forest and temples of Yavin 4 still existed—not to mention the Rebellion—he'd never imagined…

Finally, Cassian said numbly, "Okay." No open datalink would exist to the Rebellion's current status or whereabouts. Except something for… "That must have gotten the Alliance a lot of new recruits. We could use my Fulcrum codes to make contact." He belatedly looked up at Kay, as well. "Assuming…"

He'd almost said …that's why we're here. But he didn't believe in whys, nor, he thought, would Kay.

He said instead: "…that wasn't also the end of the Empire."

[icanblendin]

"Yes." He agreed to that first stunned exclamation, not even bothering to correct 'is' to 'was', because he knew the shock would take a while to wear off, it was enough to have him still reeling, at least a little, though not in the same way.

"Many people think that it was." That reply was even easier, because that was just Kay through and through, many people believing something didn't mean it was a fact, and somehow he conveyed that without any kind of emotional subroutines of his own. Also he knew better, the Empire wasn't just going to give up because their newest tool had been destroyed and however many of their forces were lost in the process, "But yes, the Alliance has grown, and seeds of a new Galactic Republic have been sown." At least, according to what news articles he'd been able to find.

[candor1]

Cassian exhaled slowly, getting a grip. "Good." No one could really know, this quickly, but that was a far better answer than many other possibilities.

He rested his palms on his knees, looking out again, for a moment, at the vista of Canto Bight. "So… what do you think we should do? Right now?"

[icanblendin]

"They think we're dead, Cassian." Which wasn't an answer, not really, because even though this would be the perfect time, place, and reasoning to essentially just walk away to start a new life, he knew that wasn't the kind of thing Cassian could just do.

"We have two options." There were more than that, there were always more than that, but overwhelming Cassian with them wouldn't do either of them any good, "We find a way to convince them we aren't." Which probably wouldn't be easy, and there was always the chance they might just vanish again after whatever brought them here stopped working, "Or we resign ourselves to helping from the outside as free agents." Which was a less appealing option, he was sure, but would be better if they did end up vanishing again as quickly and mysteriously as they'd arrived.

[candor1]

Cassian nodded, looking off indistinctly. "We can accomplish more as part of the Alliance than on our own." It was something he'd thought about before. And something Draven and Mon Mothma had talked at him before. Kicking you out would just deprive us of an asset and deprive you of resource. Besides, anyone could always vanish (read: die) at any moment. Cassian never expected to have a future. One still had to function as if they were going to stick around.

But there was a second thought… he looked up at Kay. "What if… I wasn't alone on that beach, Kay. What if some of the others are back, too? Is there a way to find them?" He didn't expect Kay to know better than Cassian himself, on that front, but he was at a loss, so it was worth asking aloud.